


Thorns and Roses

by SomePerson5



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: F/M, HiveWings (Wings of Fire), SilkWings (Wings of Fire), Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29508378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomePerson5/pseuds/SomePerson5
Summary: So... I am currently writing a thing. It's a big thing currently. It's not done yet though. Spoliers for books 11, 12, 13 and a bit of 14.If there was a thing Radiant didn't hate, it wouldn't have lasted long before being snatched away from her.Radiant never had it good living up in Wasp Hive, the terrible teachers and the looming threat of Wasp didn't really help it either. She has always known two things, HiveWings are evil and never should deserve any sort of love, and that Wasp is the worst queen ever. After years of being in that Hive, it was beginning to seem as though Radiant would never find anything good in her life.Until one day. She was taken in by a rich HiveWing in Hornet Hive. A "duke", if you will. A forest green HiveWing who treats Radiant with... Kindness? Honesty? Loyalty? Could this dragon be a trick set up by Wasp as a way to lure Radiant into admitting to her blasphemous opinions on her, or could this HiveWing truly be acting sincere to her? And if so, would she care about them enough to go back to her worst nightmare to save him, her own home? Find out in Thorns And Roses.
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter One; “Sun”

Sun.

The terrible, terrible sun has always been the bane of Radiant's existence. She hated it to the point where her blood would boil just thinking about it. Radiant hated the stupid sun, so being in the sun for days while going from Hive to Hive to get to Hornet Hive didn't help her mood. 

"Hey! How much longer!" Radiant asked, annoyed. 

"Shut it, SilkWing." the HiveWing guard snapped back. Radiant grumbled to herself as the sun kept on beating her down. Radiant looked over and saw the vast savanna to her side from the Hives, longing to just escape right into it. Radiant could practically see every dragon in the passing Hives stare at her, which only made her more irritated. Stupid Hives.. Stupid HiveWings.. Radiant thought to herself as she snarled at a nearby HiveWing dragonet. Radiant stood out from the usual SilkWings, having red scales and white under scales. Her horns were ruby red with stripes of white, much like her body. Her red and white wings shone gloriously like fresh blood in the snow. The HiveWing guard made a left and led Radiant through the crowded market. 

"Hey, this wasn't a part of the agreement. You've never done this before!.." Radiant said angrily. 

"I know, it isn't. I just felt like, mh, making you more public." the HiveWings said. Radiant groaned to herself as she continued through the market. Countless dragons and dragonets pointed at Radiant, most of them admiring her scales; whenever this happened she'd just hiss at them. I don't need more dragons looking at me. Radiant thought as she scared off a HiveWing no older than a few months. 

After a few more painful hours of going through from Hive to Hive, they finally reached Hornet Hive. 

"Oh thank CLEARSIGHT!" groaned Radiant as she hopped into the Hive. It was no different than Wasp Hive structurally (or whatever the nerd SilkWings would say), and yet Radiant was glad to be out of that snake hole. The orange HiveWing leading her through the Hive smiled smugly at Radiant. 

"Lucky you." he said as he continued walking. 

"Yeah, lucky me for being forced to work for some HiveWing." Radiant said mockingly. 

"Oh no, not just any HiveWing, the LeafWing HiveWing." The HiveWing said. Radiant tilted her head, confused. 

"What do you mean?" she said. The HiveWing chuckled meanly. 

"You'll see." he giggled as he kept walking. Radiant, now slightly curious, picked up her pace and walked alongside the HiveWing. 

"Stay back, SilkWing. It's a surprise you learned no manners in the Wasp Hive." the HiveWing grumbled. The schools did try to "fix" Radiant's unruly behavior and volatile attitude. They constantly put her on Misbehaviors Way, on show for the surrounding HiveWings. It did no use, if anything it made her even worse. They walked through the Hive and Radiant began to notice something. It wasn't uncommon to see the Hive ruler's emblem EVERYWHERE, to the point Radiant practically had Wasp's emblem of a wasp burned into her skull. Yes, there were still symbols of hornets around, but another emblem came around a few times. An emblem showing a jade green cricket-like bug. Peculiar.. thought Radiant as she kept on walking by. 

Radiant and the HiveWing stopped at a door. The door was much bigger than usual, which struck Radiant as odd. The HiveWing knocked on the door three times and the door opened. A green snout poked through the small crack in the door and spoke.

"Are they here?" a soft voice said. 

"Yes, Duke Locust." the HiveWing said, his smug grin fading. The door opened more and Radiant nearly jumped out of her scales when she saw the dragon. At first, Radiant thought it was a LeafWing, but then quickly realized it was a jade green HiveWing. The HiveWing wore a kind smile, clearly a facade. The HiveWing stepped forward from his door into the sunlight. 

"Bit of a hot few days... I hope there wasn't any trouble bringing them!.." the green HiveWing said to the HiveWing.

"Oh, there were no problems, except for her." the orange HiveWing said, pointing at Radiant. Radiant's antennae curled in on themselves as the green HiveWing came closer. 

"Good day, my name is Locust." the HiveWing said with a bow. 

"Are you bowing to me? HA!" Radiant said. "Don't bother bowing to me, by the end of the day I'd be surprised if you didn't already kill me." Radiant laughed. Locust gave Radiant a slightly concerned look. 

"I don't believe I will. You, HiveWing, you are relieved of your duties. I hope your leader pays you well," Locust said. The HiveWing bowed quickly and flew off. "Come now, it's too hot outside for any dragon." Locust said, inviting Radiant inside the beautiful house.


	2. Chapter 2; “Home”

Radiant followed him into the house and was floored by the beauty of the place. It was clean, full of green and black padded furniture and potted plants. A large chandelier hung from the roof and the hard tile floor had the jade green cricket in the center of the room. Radiant noticed that the house had another floor and the main staircase spiraled from the center of the room right before the jade cricket. Wow.. Radiant thought to herself. 

"Is it okay? Most dragons usually think it's amazing, but I don't know.." Locust said, breaking Radiant out of her thought. 

"It's meh." she said, walking over to a couch. She sat down and tried to not stare at everything in amazement. 

"So, what's the deal? You wanted me, of all dragons, to come to your house and slave over a broom cleaning everything?" Radiant said. 

"I wouldn't you'd have to do that. I just wanted some extra help cleaning the place and you seemed like a nice fit." Locust replied, trying to sit down. Radiant moved over to the side before he could fully sit down, trying to stay as far away from him. 

"So, what kind of closet did you get prepared for me?" Radiant asked. 

"'Closet'? You're getting a room, you're not an animal!..." Locust replied, nearly floored. Radiant scoffed. He must be joking. No HiveWing would treat a SilkWing kindly, not without it being a sick joke or for their own selfish reasons. She thought to herself. "Are you okay?.." Locust asked, a bit concerned. "You look terribly worried and upset, I can get you something.." he continued, putting one of his wings on Radiant. She quickly jumped back and hissed aggressively. 

"Don't. Touch. Me." She snarled. 

"Okay, okay.. I won't.." Locust said, putting his front legs up in surrender. Radiant still growled at Locust, weary of what he'd do to her. HiveWings are evil. They are stupid and full of hate. Radiant thought to herself. 

"Do you want some food? I can make you whatever you want." Locust offered, trying to brush off the threat Radiant yelled at him. 

"I'm not hungry." Radiant said, lowering her guard. No, he wants me to feel safe. He wants be to think he's nice so he can torture me. Radiant thought to herself. 

"Alright, suit yourself. Let me guess, you also want to get to bed as early as you can?" He guessed. It was true, Radiant did want to see her bed. "It's upstairs and to the left. I even bought a sign for you telling you where to go." he added.

"Okay.." Radiant said, walking towards the stairs. As she walked up she never broke eye contact with him.

Once Radiant got up the stairs she instantly noticed that there were two hallways. To her left had flowers, a silk rug, and a sign saying "SilkWing go here", while the other had green tapestries on the walls and a jade green rug. Chances are I go to the left Radiant thought sarcastically. She walked over to the left, slightly scratching the sign out of spite. She walked into the room and was floored with how big and beautiful it was. A bed three times as big as normal sat there ever so elegantly. A fountain designed to look like water was running down sat in the middle of the room. To her side was a massive bookshelf stretching to the ceiling itself full of fresh and clean books. This. This is nice. Radiant thought before remembering that it's most likely a trap to make her feel safe. She walked over to the massive bed and hesitantly crawled into it. The bed felt as though she was laying on a cloud and sunk deep into the bed. She felt comfortable for the first time in her life, but she still didn't trust it. She felt a wave of drowsiness overcome her, but she refused and stayed up for most of the night before passing out.


	3. Chapter Three; “Carpet”

The next morning Radiant awoke to find herself still alive and not hurt in the slightest. She got up and walked down the hall and was greeted by the smell of cooked meat. Her nose and antennae curled in on themselves in disgust and flew down the stairs.  
"You're up early." Locust said. Radiant saw him in the kitchen with a fire going. On the fire was a pan with some meat on it.  
"Don't tell me you're going to make me... Eat that..." Radiant gagged in disgust. Locust's eyes looked at her in surprise.  
"You don't like zebra meat?"  
"I don't like meat. PERIOD."  
"Oh, sorry. I didn't know you didn't like that. I can go out and get some fruit from the market if you'd like. You could even join me to pick out the fruit you'd like." Locust suggested. Radiant snorted, but considered it.  
"Sure, but only because you'd probably screw it up anyways and get me, I don't know, fruit meat if I wasn't there." she hissed a bit aggressively.  
"Thanks for the compliment." Locust said with a smile on his face and grabbed a small black bag.  
"Does literally everything you own come in the colour of green and black?" Radiant asked, astonished that so many things are just one of two colours. Locust stiffened a bit.  
"Perhaps.. Anyways, you ready?" Locust said, checking his bag and pulling out a scale. Radiant looked at her talons, she didn't bring anything with her when she left Wasp Hive and it would be nice to get something.  
"Yeah I'm ready." Radiant admitted and walked out of the door without even waiting for Locust.  
"Hey! Wait for me!" Locust said, running out of the house and to Radiant. He caught up to Radiant and let out an exhausted sigh. "You walk fast." he complimented. Radiant didn't say anything and walked to the left a little more to stay away from him.  
"So.. What was it like in Wasp Hive? I never really been there before, only a few times for family stuff." Locust asked. Radiant turned her snout away from him, refusing to talk. "Not too happy to talk about it? I see, I'll just shut up." Locust said and both dragons continued walking in silence.

They both got to the market in Hornet Hive, which was rather big for what it was worth. Lanterns of an unknown material lit up the entire bazaar and the sounds of HiveWings bargaining filled the outdoor market.  
"We can go over here first," Locust said, pointing to a bar. "We could probably ask them for some fruit." Locust walked over there and Radiant tailed behind. A few HiveWings and SilkWings stopped to stare at Locust and Radiant could hear them whispering, probably about her.  
"Hold it, why are you following the Duke?" a HiveWing guard asked Radiant, stepping in front of her.  
"None of your business." Radiant hissed. She kept trying to walk by but the HiveWing wouldn't budge. Then, a jade green paw landed on the HiveWing's shoulder.

"She's with me," Locust said and the HiveWing looked at him with a mildly shocked look then stepped out of the way. Radiant looked at the yellow HiveWing guard smugly and walked along with Locust. "You can say thank you now." Locust said jokingly. Radiant rolled her eyes at him. Both dragons then walked up to the bar and were greeted with the smell of cooking meat. Radiant gagged for a bit and the HiveWing chef just looked at her annoyed.

"If you can't handle meat getting cooked, then get out." the HiveWing chef snorted. Radiant snarled back at the chef.

"Hey, do you have any fruit to spare?" Locust asked calmly.

"Don't know, but if I have to go look it'll cost ya'."

"Come on, I'm one of your regulars!"

"You've been to my bar all of two times."

"How would you know that?" Locust questioned. The chef picked up a sharp blade and pointed at Locust's green scales.

"With scales like that, I'd remember." The chef growled before spitting at the floor. Locust flinched in disgust before sighing in defeat.

"Fine, how much?" he asked.

"Ten scales, just to look." Said the chef. Locust groaned and put ten scales on the counter. The chef snattched them up and walked into the back room.

"Are you brainless? You could've gotten scammed and that little rat would've gotten away with your scales." Radiant criticized. Locust shrugged and smugly looked at her.

"Doesn't matter. And besides, why would you care about me losing money?" Locust childishly questioned. Radiant's antennae straightened out in annoyance. Footsteps momentarily paused their conversation as the chef came out with a large crate. The chef threw it onto the counter, shaking the entire bar and causing a few bits of yam to fall out.

"Found a thing of yams and kale." The chef said, plugging his nostrils. The box smelt like vomit that was left unclean and sat in the sun for a full week. Radiant gagged a bit and Locust got up and ushered Radiant to come to.

"No thanks, maybe we'll find another place." Locust said, offering his talons to hold her. Radiant turned her head and kept walking.

"That box smelt like death." Radiant thought out loud. Locust chuckled and spoke up.

"It did. Are vegetables supposed to smell like that? My folks didn't really force us to eat that junk," Locust joked. "Besides... I could probably pay off a HiveWing to go to the Mantis Hive or Cicada Hive to get something for you and fast. You look famished." It was true, Radiant was quick thin, even for a SilkWing. Radiant took it as an insult and just groaned annoyed. 

"If we're not getting me food... How about something else?" Radiant suggested.

"Nice idea. What would you like?" 

"You're... Asking me? Anything in this market you can buy for me?"

"Yeah. Go ahead, it's your choice." Radiant looked around the market. Nothing really caught her eye, except for an orange and yellow market stand. She walked over to it and saw a vast display of carpets. Some orange, some green, some red, some purple. One that got her attention was a very light pink carpet with a white exterior.

"That one doesn't look ugly." Radiant said, pointing to the carpet. Locust walked over, chatted with the vendor, and came back with carpet in hand.

"It's a pretty one, eh'?" he asked. Radiant shrugged and walked away, but not before waiting for Locust.

Both dragons came back to the house and walked inside. "Sorry about not getting you any food." Locust apologized. Radiant just snorted, she didn't really care if she ate today. She's gone days without food, so a few hours would be fine.

"It's nothing. Anyways, can I have the carpet now?" Radiant asked. Locust grabbed it and dropped it into Radiant's talons gently. Radiant walked up to her room and sat down in the middle of it, trying to figure out where to put it. She then settled to put it right at the foot of her bed. As she laid it down, a thought struck her.

What if that HiveWing isn't that bad? she thought about it for a bit. It seemed outlandish and stupid, considering what monsters all of them are, but this one seemed to just be... Nice? If he really was evil he would've stung her and handed her into the guards the first chance he got, but after all she's done he's still patient with her. No HiveWing could be this resistant to her, unless it was a trick; yet something about Locust didn't strike her as that type of HiveWing. She shook off the thought and kept on patting down the carpet to destroy any and all ruffles. She stood up from her carpet and smirked for the first time in a while at it. She walked around her room for a bit, proud of her taste in design, then strutted out of her room.

She was going down the hallway before stopping at the balcony window, noticing the shades of purple and orange from the setting sun. Radiant was mesmerized by it for a bit, despite everything that was terrible about it, the sun can be pretty at times. Radiant stepped out onto the balcony, the cool summer's breeze brushing against her wings. She sat down on the balcony and gazed off into the distance, admiring the sunset. She began to think, to think about perhaps flying away. Flying into the savannah, never to be seen again; free from worries and the terribleness of the Hives. Then, the sound of the balcony door creaking open startled her, breaking her out of thought and putting her into a state of aggression.

"Oh, sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to ask if I could join you." said the jade green dragon. Radiant grumbled, but did not reject his request. She did not move an inch, but Locust sat down beside her.

"The carpet you bought earlier is nice. Looks good with the room." Radiant said, trying not to say thank you. Locust sighed and giggled a bit.

"You know, it's okay to say 'thank you'. Nobody's going to get mad if you say it--"

"It's just a nice carpet." Radiant snapped back. She felt a small pang in her heart after yelling and looked at her talons in guilt.

"I'm just saying that it's okay to be thankful. Nobody's going to sting you or yell at you for doing something wrong, at least I'm not." Locust said, his forest green eyes looking at Radiant with a caring expression. Radiant shifted as memories of Misbehavior's Way and the constant belittlement of HiveWings and even her own clawmates and parents filled her mind.

"Are you sure?" Radiant choked out. She felt unsure about everything, it could all be a rouse made by Locust to try and speak about her disloyalty to Wasp to punish her, but yet...

"I'm sure. You're safe and trust me when I say this, everything is going to be alright." Locust then moved his tail slightly, putting it against Radiant's tail. Her tail shot back, before inching back up to Locust's tail hesitantly. Her tail brushed against his tail, then she lifted it up to rest it on his tail. Both dragons gazed off into the sunset in silence, as nothing else in the world cared to them.


	4. Chapter Four; “Mail”

Radiant, surprisingly, woke up in her own bed. She couldn't remember going into her own bed from last night; all she remembered was laying down after a few hours and something warm picking her up as she fell asleep. She came out of her room and walked down stairs to see Locust sitting on his couch, leaning over a stack of papers made from silk.

"Oh, morning Radiant!" Locust said. Radiant still felt a bit uncomfortable with him saying her name, which even surprised her.

"Morning. What are you doing?" she asked, trying to look over his shoulder.

"Boring family stuff."

"Like what?"

"Don't really know, my parents are kind of secretive about it for no reason. All I do is calculate the cost of these transactions." Locust said. Radiant then noticed a slap of wood beside Locust with tally marks in it.

"So you're just counting numbers? How do you not even know what you're even doing?" Radiant asked, dumbfounded.

"That's the point. It's just weird... You know, I might just send them a letter when I'm done just to ask."

"You can't just hand it to them?"

"They live in Tsetse Hive, you know, the one for--"

"Old dragons? I know." Radiant flicked her tail a bit before looking at Locust's scales. She'd never seen anything quite like it. Sure, she's seen some dark green HiveWings, but none this shade of jade green. "What's the deal with your scales? Why do they look--"

"Green? Your guess is as good as mine. My parents are also green so I always just assumed we're different."

"Do you think one of your grandparents or great grandparents was a LeafWing?" Locust looked at Radiant confused.

"I don't believe so... I wouldn't want to be related to those creatures," Locust visibly shivered in fear. "I was always sort of bullied for it. Called the 'LeafWing HiveWing' behind my back a few times. Clearsight knows what else I've been called." Radiant didn't even know how to respond. She knew that what he's been through wasn't nearly as bad as what she's suffered through, yet she still felt bad.

"Sounds rough." she ended up saying.

"Anyways, enough about me. How've you been?" Locust said, standing up to stretch his wings out.

"Okay I guess. The bed's nice," Radiant said, rubbing her back with her wings. "Can we not go out today? Just sort of stay inside?" Locust raised his head from his work.

"Why? I mean, I'm fine with it, I have all of this work; but still, why?" Radiant just shrugged and walked to the door.

"Did my fruit come yet?" she asked.

"I heard a knock at the door earlier today, I think it is your fruit."

"Why did you leave it out in the cold?"

"Wanted you to pick it up and to criticize it." Locust joked. Radiant felt a bit offended, but still opened the door. She was greeted with a large box of yams, kale, and other assortments of vegetables. She grabbed the box, making a few pieces of produce fall out. She walked back inside, shut the door, and set the box on the table. She promptly then dug into a nice green piece of kale, ripping it apart and stuffing it all in her gaping mouth.

"Thanks for the food." Radiant said, putting extra emphasis on the 'thanks'. She could see a small smile crack across Locust's face,even from across the room. As Radiant continued to eat the food, she noticed a few wanted posters on the side of the box. She tore one off to inspect it. On the page was the picture of a HiveWing dragonet with golden orange scales and small glasses. Under the picture was the reward price (100 scales) and where the dragonet was seen last. Radiant walked over to Locust, who was still signing papers, and placed down the poster. He stopped for a moment and looked at it.

"Wonder what that one is wanted for." Locust said, picking up the paper. Radiant walked over and grabbed the other two posters, one was for a SilkWing dragonet and the other for a orange and royal blue SilkWing, then placed them down.

"Maybe they all murdered some HiveWing." Radiant scoffed.

"I doubt that. SilkWings are harmless--"

"We are NOT." Radiant rolled her eyes at Locust.

"Most SilkWings are harmless," he corrected. "Maybe the HiveWing is missing and the other SilkWings have nothing to do with them. Or, hey, they could all be separate parties. It does worry me that they're all from the neighbouring Hive," Locust pointed to the text that read "Last seen at Cicada Hive". 

Radiant just shrugged. "Who cares? Like you said, WE'RE harmless."

"Let me guess, you're never going to let that go and constantly remind me of that?"

"Yep." Radiant cracked a small smile and walked away to explore the house. She ended up sitting down on a pure black chair and grabbing a random book off of a green bookshelf and began to read it.

After a half an hour Locust stood up and stretched his wings. Radiant looked to her side to the green HiveWing walk through the house and out the door.

"Hey, didn't you promise to stay inside all day?"

"I know, I just need to mail these things. I'll just go to the post and come back, don't burn down the house while I'm gone!" Locust called out.

"Trust me, I will!" Radiant said, not really sure if she was joking or not. She flexed her antennae and a thought suddenly entered her mind. A sudden desire to see what those papers were about and to find out if he was lying about being oblivious to the true meaning of those papers or not. She poked her head out of the door to see Locust had already taken off. Radiant looked around and then stepped out of the house to look for the truth. The red and white SilkWing wandered around the Hive for a bit before stumbling into the bazaar, which was much quieter than it was yesterday. She puffed up her chest and tried to walk confidently to avoid gaining attention, which failed spectacularly when a HiveWing dragonet came up to her.

"Your scales look pretty, for a SilkWing." the dragonet said. Their tone wasn't mean, but yet it felt like a direct insult to Radiant.

"Go to your mother, HiveWing." 

Radiant swept her tail and pushed the HiveWing out of her way. She glared back at the HiveWing, then a tiny wave of guilt passed over Radiant. Her face, which was once full of malice, now turned slightly regretful. No, what are you DOING?! You hate HiveWings, do you not? All of them are evil and Locust could just be trying to trick you. Radiant told herself. She continued to walk around the bazaar before finding a building with a buzzard on it saying "POST". Radiant walked inside and saw a few HiveWings in front of a long desk. Behind the HiveWings were birds of all species and sizes all screaming and screeching loudly. Radiant walked towards the middle HiveWing, her talons clacking against the metal floor.

"Hello! Welcome to the Hornet Hive Post Office, my name is Hivestripe and how may I help you today?" said the middle HiveWing with fake enthusiasm.

"Did a green HiveWing come in here today?"

"I'm sorry, we're not allowed to give out that sort of information." Hivestripe said with a fake smile. Radiant's antennae straightened out on themselves and she let out a long annoyed sigh.

"Listen, I need to know if he came here or not. If you don't tell me now I will--" Radiant cut herself off. Thousands of ideas to hurt and destroy this building entered her mind and she couldn't pick one.

"What? You will what? Use your antennae to tickle me?" Hivestripe joked. Radiant growled and raised her talons to take a swipe at the HiveWing.

"SilkWing, if you lay a talon on my co-worker we will have to get security." a nearby HiveWing called out.

"See if I care!" Radiant yelled as she swiped down, intentionally missing Hivestripe and slamming her talons on the table. Radiant stormed off, knowing that this place was a dead end. She walked through the doors and began to make her way back to Locust's house. All attempts of guards, normal passerby's, and other dragons to interact with her or to sell her something were met with either silence or Radiant hissing. 

She walked around the Hive for a bit, retracing her steps to come back to the house, then found Locust in front of the door looking worried.

"Oh, Radiant! I was getting worried that something happened to you--"

"Don't talk to me right now." Radiant snarled as she moved around Locust to get into the house.

"Oh, okay..." Locust closed the door gently behind him and Radiant stomped upstairs to go to her room. "Do you want some food?" he offered.

"I said don't talk to me." she called out and slammed the door behind her. She walked over to her bed and sat onto it. She felt angry, confused, disappointed, scared all at once. She sat in her room and did nothing for hours except think about how terrible the HiveWings are. Then, she heard a knock at her door.

"Radiant? You've been in your room for quite some time now. Is everything okay?" a soft voice asks.

"I'm not okay! I just want... I just want..." Radiant yelled before losing her train of thought. Locust opened the door and slowly walked over to Radiant before sitting down beside her.

"It's okay. I'm not going to get mad at you." Locust assured. Radiant sighed and then sat up from her bed.

"Are you sure?" she asks, unsure if he's lying or not. Locust shook his head and Radiant tried to calm down her shaking talons.

"It'll be alright. Nothing is going to hurt you..." Radiant took a deep breath.  
"I just want to be safe... Wasp Hive was never okay. Everybody was mean, including the SilkWings. If they could push me around, why couldn't I? I don't want to be hurt anymore... No more stings, no more hits, no more yelling, no more--" Radiant was cut off by the feeling of something hugging her. She looked to her side and saw Locust wrapping his wings and talons around her.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this. I knew Wasp Hive was always a scary place, but not like this." he said. Radiant tried to squirm out of Locust's grasp before giving up and just letting him hug her. It felt surprisingly nice. Radiant couldn't recall the last time she'd been given a pat on the back (in a loving manner), much less given a hug. She could feel silvery tears run down her face as she hugged Locust back.  
"Thank you." Radiant smiled. Locust pulled himself away from a moment and turned his head.

"For what?"

"For picking me. You're the nicest HiveWing I've ever seen in my life." Radiant suddenly realized what she was even saying. She was worried that she'd finally given in and now Locust has his talons around her, but she didn't even care if that was the truth. She just liked having Locust there for her. Locust backed off and smiled kindly.

"I hope tomorrow is a better day for you." he said before heading out. Radiant shook her head viciously to shake off some tears and flexed her talons. She laid back down on her bed, tucked herself into her sheets, and went off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5; “Chase”

The next morning Radiant awoke to the smell of meat. She held back a gag as she got up and walked down the hall. Once more she saw Locust there, cooking meat. By the looks of it she couldn't figure out what animal the meal came from, but she didn't really care what it came from.

"Oh, sorry." Locust apologized. Radiant just plugged her nostrils and walked down stairs.

"Maybe just flap your wings or something to push the smell out of the house." she managed to say, despite having her nose plugged. She walked over to the counter, expecting her box to be there, but instead a small basket full of fresh and tasty food.

"I thought that the last batch wasn't good enough for you, so I ordered some more from Bloodworm Hive. They have the best produce out of all of the Hives apparently," Locust said, taking a break from tending to his food and walking over to Radiant. "Are you going to have that?" he asked, pointing to a nice piece of persimmons.

"Probably not. I've never been a fan of persimmons." Locust took the fruit and hesitantly bit into it. His eyes widened before gaging. Radiant snickers as the green HiveWing was in very visible discomfort. Locust spat out the fruit and laughed a bit.

"I can see why you don't like it. Bleck!" he chuckled as he spat a bit more on the floor. "I can clean it up." Locust said as he walked over to get a cloth and a broom. Radiant chuckled as she walked over to the couch and laid down. Suddenly, Radiant noticed a small fire on the meat. She ran over to it and moved the charred meat from the fire onto a plate.

"Uhh... Locust? Your food is--"

"Oh, talons!" Locust ran over to his meat and sighed disappointedly. "Looks like I have to eat this or starve to death." he joked. He took a bite of the singed meat then made a choking noise and fell to the ground with a thud, all with a smile still on his face. Radiant rolled her eyes.

"Get up, you goof." she said, bushing her tail over to help him. Locust grabbed onto her tail and Radiant heaved him up to his feet.

Radiant and Locust spent the next days doing nothing but talking to each other about random topics. Nothing of interest happened until Radiant heard a knock on the door.

"That could be your food." Locust said as he walked up and opened the door. The delivery HiveWing handed a small package and a little letter to Locust.

"Let me guess, no food?"

"No, work stuff. Hopefully mom and dad answered my question." He tore open the small letter and a small slip of paper came out. He read it with a smile on his face, which slowly faded away. His face turned from happy, to perplexed, to shock, to terror all in the span of a few seconds.

"You don't look so good. Is something wrong with the answer?" Radiant asked. Locust didn't answer her question. He stared at the paper with wide budging eyes. Radiant walked over to Locust to see what was going on, only for him to jump away.

"I'm sorry but I don't think you can read this..." Locust said. He sounded upset and hurt but Radiant couldn't understand why.

"I doubt it's that bad."

"It is that bad though." Radiant rolled her eyes and jumped over the couches and chairs to get to Locust. Locust backed away quickly and lunged away from Radiant. "Please stop chasing me." Locust pleaded dryly. Radiant was laughing and smiling, while Locust never even cracked a grin. Locust flew over the tables and counters and managed to run upstairs. Radiant tailed behind him, getting closer and closer to Locust and the letter. Locust bolted right and ran down the hallway. Radiant was gaining on him and busted into Locust's room.

"I got you now!" Radiant smirked as she lunged to Locust. Then all of a sudden...

GULP! The letter was gone. Radiant looked around, trying to see where it'd gone, then saw Locust gagging.  
"Ugh, this tastes gross..."

"You ATE it?" Radiant burst out into laughter. Locust cracked a smile before returning to his solemn look.

"Never mind the letter, how about we go do something."

"Don't you have work to do?" Radiant questioned. Locust raised his talons to speak, then paused.

"Give me a minute." he said as he maneuvered around Radiant and down the stairs. She walked behind him and saw Locust grab the papers and begin to walk back up the stairs and onto the balcony.

"What are you doing you idio--" Radiant was interrupted by Locust opening the balcony door and tossing the package of papers off the balcony.

"I've decided as of now that this work is too dull and boring for me." Locust exclaimed as the stack of silk papers swung in the breeze. Radiant rolled her eyes and walked up to him. "So, what do you wanna do?"

"Don't know, anything but work being honest." Radiant looked at him, hiding her curiosities. She was still curious to know what made Locust panic like this and so quick to give up his work life. Part of her was upset that he was keeping secrets, while the other half was relieved that Locust wasn't a COMPLETE workaholic; that would've been insufferable.

Both dragons walked down the stairs and helped themselves to some food. Locust walked over and grabbed a bit of kale.

"Hey, at least this doesn't make me puke my guts out." he joked. Radiant rolled her eyes playfully as she grabbed a yam.

"So anyways, what was the most interesting thing you've done?"

"I don't know, probably go to school. Ha!"

Radiant stared at Locust mildly shocked. "Really? That's it? I've been on that stupid Misbehaviors Way I lost count."

"Really? I was always terrified of going there, what's it like?"

"Hurts for a bit. You just kinda wanna move all over and--" Radiant stopped herself when Locust dropped his piece of kale. His eyes rolled back until his skull and legs all stiffened. Locust automatically flew up and went over to the balcony before flying right out of it.


	6. Chapter Six; “Fire”

"Ugh, what now you stupid queen?" Radiant said, making sure nobody was around to hear. She flew over to where Locust was and walked onto the balcony. The smell of smoke and the fumes of treestuff burning was present right there. Radiant plugged her nose and flew out of the smoke and above Hornet Hive to see a Hive far off in the distance, Bloodworm Hive, on fire. 

"What on Pantala-- What's going on?" she questioned. She saw HiveWings from other Hives autonomously fly over to Bloodworm Hive, trying to put out the fire (Radiant assumed). She felt a sick sense of enjoyment watched the Hive burn; the very thought of all of the evil HiveWings burning in their Hive made her both happy and sick to her stomach. She meditated making a prayer to Clearsight to protect Locust, but instead flew back to the house and waited for him to return. She closed the doors, waved out some smoke, and sat alone in the house. Something about being lonely triggered something with Radiant. A cold feeling of familiar dread washed over her scales as she shifted around alone in the house.

No, you're safe. You're not with them anymore. Radiant thought to herself, but just thinking about her parents and much worse teachers made her feel less safe. She grabbed one of her fox boxes and dug into it, stressing about recurring memories and attempting to relieve herself. The smell of fire and burning got worse the longer time went on and Radiant decided to try and get some sleep while she's waiting. She curled up on the couch and covered herself in a blanket, then after counting a near impossible amount of rolling yams, went to sleep.

"Wake up, SilkWing." a soft, yet cold and distant voice said. Radiant shot awake, realizing what the echo of the voice was. In front of her stood Locust, but his eyes were still blotched out. Wasp was still controlling him. Radiant had gotten used to seeing HiveWings being controlled, but this time seeing Locust unlike himself was a bit uneasy.

"What do you want?" Radiant snarled.

"That's no way to talk to a HiveWing, SilkWing," Locust and the echo sneered. "I've come because my main source of income has been having some questions."

"Like what?"

"What the family business is. I don't wanna break it to you but it's nothing you should worry about, SilkWing. Just ignore everything about this HiveWing's work and stay out of it. Look pretty and do your work, NOW!" Locust screamed, the echo more apparent now. Locust's eyes then rolled back to normal as he fell to the ground.

"First time?" Radiant questioned.

"Clearsight alive what WAS THAT?" Locust questioned. His legs failed to stand him back up a few times before Radiant, hesitantly, helped him up.

"The queen does it, I think." she shrugged.

"Now I can see why nobody wants to make her mad--"

"You seriously never questioned why nobody rebels?" Radiant wanted to add 'I'd love to tear her throne down' but was weary in case Wasp wasn't fully gone yet.

"She was a bit rude to you."

"Eh'... It's nothing much." Radiant shrugged. "What did you do?"

"I don't really know... I was just forced to fly to Bloodworm Hive and to put out the fires. There was... So many bodies just lying, charred and scarred."

"So you don't know why the fire was caused."

"Oh, I do think I know. I heard Wasp's voice and she said something about it being a terror attack, probably from the LeafWings."

"Aren't LeafWings extinct?" Radiant knew this was a stupid question since nobody really explored the Poison Jungle, but still.

"I'm not sure. There've been more posters being put up attacking LeafWings and such."

"How can you tell?"

"I go outside, unlike you." Locust joked.

"Oh, shut up. It's not my fault the stupid sun hates me."

"Why does it hate you?"

"It-- It doesn't-- It doesn't hate me it's just--" Radiant didn't know how to exactly react to such a question. It seemed so stupid, yet she wanted to give a straight answer. "It's just something with the past..." she admitted.

"You know, I don't need to know anything you don't feel comfortable sharing--"

"No, no... You should at least know since we would eventually have this conversation." Locust nodded and sat down on the couch beside Radiant.

"If you say so." he sat down and looked at Radiant, wide eyed and full of interest.

"Okay so, back when my teachers wanted to teach me a lesson. Misbehaviors Way clearly wasn't working and they wanted to try and put it into my head that I needed to 'know my place'. I remember this one piece of work taking me by the tail and tossing me out of the Hive. So, I'm stuck out of Wasp Hive, alone. I don't have wings and no way to get back into the Hive as orders from the teachers until I 'learn'. I'm just there, starving. I'm left to the elements-- and not only that but it's the DRY SEASON. Clearsight, that was probably the worst time of my life."

"How long were you out there for?" asked Locust, clearly disturbed from the story.

"Don't know. I stopped counting after the sun had fallen for the second time."

"You were out there for TWO days?" Locust reached out his talons to try and comfort Radiant but she nudged away, remembering why she hated HiveWings in the first place. Radiant grabbed her scales where her stomach was, remembering the feelings of intense hunger and dehydration.

"So, yeah... That's why I don't like the sun. I think I had heat-stroke out there since I felt so tired and my scales were almost getting darker."

"Poor you... How did you even get back?" Locust said, folding his wings around himself, almost as if he couldn't comprehend how terrible a dragon could be and was trying to shield himself from these experiences.

"I walked for a day away from the Hive, trying to get to Yellow Jacket Hive, then back when I realized I couldn't make it there. By the time I got back I was almost beginning to think I was in the wrong for hating Wasp so getting in wasn't a problem."

"'Almost'?" Locust questioned, hanging onto that one word. Radiant felt as though she had been hit with a bat. Terrible thoughts of Wasp still hiding and observing Locust plagued her, yet she was already found.  
Radiant nodded. "Yes, almost."

"Do you-- do you still hate her to this day?"

Radiant paused.

"Yes. After everything her and the HiveWings have done to me, how could I not? What I told you barely scrapes the surface!... The constant belittlement, the lack of fresh food and clean water, the amount of bruises and scratches, getting threatened to be publicly executed, all of it! That's why-- that's why I hate your tribe." Radiant felt as though daggers were coming up her throat with each word. She felt bad for hating Locust's tribe, but she wanted him to know how she felt. Radiant looked away, feeling guilty for hating Locust's tribe. After a few moments she felt claws resting on her back.

"I'm not like them, though. I don't hurt you, I don't make you suffer. At least, I think."

"No, you don't." Radiant said, wiping a tear from her eye and cracking a small smile.

"Good, that's-- that's nice to hear. If you want I can go get a bowl of honey drops to make you feel better. You're not at Wasp Hive anymore, you're safe and I'll make sure nothing EVER hurts you like them again." Locust said, reaching out his talons for a hug. Radiant rolled her eyes through the tears and returned the hug.

"Thank you." Radiant whispered to Locust.

"It's no biggie. You deserve to feel good about yourself."

"Mh... You know what would make me feel even better?"

"What?"

"A bowl of honey drops."

"I'm getting it, I'm getting it." Locust sighed playfully and got up to get the honey drops.


	7. Chapter 7; “Alone”

The dragons spent the rest of the night enjoying the honey drops and laughing away at the other's jokes and conversations to try and hide the pain of earlier. Locust went off to bed and Radiant followed soon after. The dragons spent the next few days uneventfully. Talking and eating took up much of the time and they were keeping up with the news. Reports of LeafWings around the Hives were brushed off by the both as unfunny pranks, though one day Radiant could almost see a bunch of weird figures flying across from the Poison Jungle into the ocean. One day, Radiant woke up and walked downstairs to see that Locust wasn't awake yet. Radiant noted that it would've been too early in the morning for him and just wanted to get the day over with. She walked down and walked over to her basket of vegetables and grabbed a piece of yam and gnawed on it sleepily. Suddenly, she heard a knock at the door. Radiant stretched her ruby red and white wings and walked over to the door.

"Delivery for Duke Locust." the delivery HiveWing said boredly.  
"He's asleep."

"Not my problem, get him down and sign the paper."

"I'll just sign it and tell it's for him."  
"Alright, do what you want. I don't care." Radiant pulled the board out of the HiveWing's talons and signed it with a quill.

"There, take it." Radiant tossed it back to the HiveWing and he nearly dropped it.

"Gee, here you go." The HiveWing said sarcastically after dropping a letter and package onto the porch. The HiveWing took off and Radiant was left by herself with a package and letter.

"Annoying little... Ugh! They don't even treat us with respect." Radiant whined to herself as she picked up the package. She quickly blew a raspberry at nothing, annoyed, and walked inside slamming the door shut. She tossed the package onto the table, but then saw a small letter fall. She went to pick it up to then see a small green locust symbol. She inspected it more to see it was from Tsetse Hive. Curiosity took over Radiant as she remembered Locust being panicked about the other letter and wanted to know what that was all about. She held the letter in one claw and tore it open from the top. Her stomach felt as though it was full of butterflies with each tear at it until finally the silk paper came out.

Addressed to Duke Locust

I expect this letter finds you well. You haven't been sending back your signed forms as of recently and I wish to know why you aren't. No, that's quite idiotic... I know why you're not sending your work back. That SilkWing you picked up is the reason, isn't it? Me and father know about that dragon. If you are upset learning about what you actually do, we regret to inform you that it would be a problem. If we do not earn income from you legalizing the trade papers then all of Wasp and Hornet Hive would go into poverty. If this problem stems from you trying to "protect" your little pet from the truth we will be forced to remove them ourselves. Disappointing your parents wouldn't be what you want, no? Their kind isn't of worth anyways, that's why they're better off as being low-class workers. Was none of your learning in Mantis Hive even useful? SilkWings are better off as being below HiveWings, you even said so yourself in our last letter before getting them. I hope this pause in your work is only momentarily and you resume once this letter gets in your thick skull.

Duchess Paralyze

"I'm sorry, what?" She looked at the letter over and over again. She wasn't incredibly surprised that Locust said he didn't like SilkWings, but them calling her a pet just enraged her. However, this made her more curious about what it was like in the family business. It said something about 'trade papers' so they could trade something, but what?

"Hey, Radiant." a voice called out.

"What is your family's business?" Radiant said coldly. For the first time in a while she was mad at Locust.

"W-- what exactly?"

"What is it? The letter your mommy sent you said something about trading."

"You opened a letter from her?"

"I-- ignore that. What is it?"

"It's just usually trading stuff, like fruits and meat."

"You're lying. It said Wasp Hive goes down if you stopped as well. Why would it go down into poverty? Bloodworm and Yellow Jacket would be the only ones suffering since they make the food. Wasp Hive is known for being the home of Wasp and--"

"It's nothing, okay?" Locust snapped. Radiant was taken back by him being upset.

"It IS something and I know it. You're trying to keep it a secret from me so that I wouldn't be hurt, aren't you?"  
Locust didn't answer for a long time.

"I just want you to be happy..." he choked out.

"I'd sure be happy if you told me--"

"WE TRADE SILKWINGS!" Locust yelled out. "WE TRADE SILKWINGS AND SELL THEM INTO SLAVERY FOR PROFIT! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!" he screamed.

"You--"

"YES, WE DO. WE'RE THE REASON WHY SILKWINGS ARE LIKE THIS. WE'RE-- we're..." Locust stopped and looked at the floor.

"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME?" screamed Radiant. She got up and for once her pure hatred of HiveWings came back.

"I knew just a few days ago! I didn't want to tell you this!"

"How could you even LIVE like this?!" Radiant's face was burning up and her claws were digging into the flooring.

"I TOLD YOU, I didn't KNOW!"

"I don't care if you didn't 'know', you're responsible for this. You're responsible for EVERYTHING that happened to me! I HATE you and your family!"

"Well, I hate you TOO! I never should've picked you!" and with that, Locust stormed off. Radiant threw down the letter and stormed out of the door in a fit of rage. She traveled through the Hive until she got to the edge.

"Stupid HiveWings!" she yelled as she flew off the edge of Hornet Hive. She was full of anger, sadness, betrayal, and confusion. She flew out into the savanna, determined to fly away. Maybe she could go to where Clearsight came from, far away from danger and the Hives. She flew until mid-day when the sun was at it's brightest. Radiant's stomach groaned more and more with each wingbeat until it was too much to bear. She ended up flying closer to the ground to rest and by the time she hit the ground she was right before a massive hole in the ground.

"That.. doesn't look good..." Radiant thought to herself. She gazed around the hole. It's entrance was nearly half the size of a normal Hive and Radiant walked along to see how deep it was. It looked endless at first glance, no, at every glace. Radiant couldn't see a bottom to it at all. Radiant got a weird feeling from looking at it and after a few minutes of resting she got back up and started to fly away. She was nearing Yellow Jacket Hive at this point and wanted to try and go to the shore. Perhaps she could actually fly off to the home of gods and goddesses and find other dragons like Clearsight. She was flying over to Yellow Jacket Hive when she saw something come out of the Poison Jungle. She saw a large group of SilkWings and, no, it couldn't be... LeafWings, of all shades of green came flying out on their two wings (Radiant was always weirdly disturbed by them).

"LeafWings!" she cried out. She dove down onto the ground and laid down flat. She could hear the sounds of wing flapping above her and held her breath, hoping that they'd just pass over her without a word. It seemed like ages before the sounds eventually left her ears alone and Radiant poked her head up once more. She slowly poked her head up and saw the group of dragons heading towards Wasp Hive. 

That was... Odd.. she thought to herself when picking herself up. She dusted some dirt off of her when she heard incredibly loud buzzing from Yellow Jacket and even Wasp Hive. The sounds of blaring wing flapping and was ear-piercing and Radiant covered her ears to block it out. She then saw massive groups of HiveWings leave Yellow Jacket Hive, most of which caring a SilkWing in their claws. Radiant could almost see a HiveWing without a SilkWing look at her, dead into her soul. It began to fly towards her at a increasingly fast pace. Radiant began to ran away before lifting herself off the group. She looked back a few times to see the HiveWing gaining on her. It's jet black scales with streaks of red seemed to mirror Radian't own scales. She noticed the large sinkhole near her and dove into it, hoping to hide from the HiveWing. She looked around before finding a small tunnel in the wall near the surface. She ran into it and prayed to Clearsight the HiveWing wouldn't notice her. The smell of the tunnel reeked of fecel matter and barely any light was visible from how deep in Radiant was in the tunnel. She felt as though the walls around her were getting smaller and smaller with each second. Eventually the sounds of a HiveWing's wing beats filled her ears and remained for a few moments before exiting.

Radiant still didn't feel safe and stayed in that tunnel for Clearsight knows how long. Seconds, minutes, hours, who knows? She then walked out of the tunnel to see that night has fallen. By this point, Radiant regretted ever leaving Locust. She was scared, alone, and trapped in the darkness of night. Radiant made her way out of the hole as fast as possible and looked around to see that all the Hives were all mostly dark except for Wasp Hive. Radiant just wanted to go home. She flew a bit in the direction of Hornet Hive before laying down to rest. Her legs and wings were exhausted and were desperate for a break. She laid down in the dirty and pressed against the dry grass. The cold breeze brushed against Radiant's scales, sending a chill down her spine. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

Radiant awoke to find herself still in the field of grass. She looked to her side to see a small elephant and it's baby sleeping against Radiant. She stood up, waking both of the elephants up and walked away. 

"Shoo, get out of here." she said, looking back to the mother elephant helping the little elephant up to it's feet. Radiant shook some dirt off herself and kept on her way to Hornet Hive. She could feel the hot sun coming up over the horizon, burning her scales in the process. The purple-ish wasteland of the savanna slowly faded away in the light and Radiant could see Vinegaroon Hive in the distance. Radiant didn't know how to react when she would get back to Hornet Hive, back to Locust. Was she still mad at him? A bit, but more so that his family just let this happen. All Radiant wanted was just to see Locust again, despite all that had happened, she still cared a bit for him.

A few hours later Radiant was nearing Hornet Hive. She spread her wings out and few up towards Locust's balcony on the side of the Hive. She raised her talons to open up before hesitating. 

What if he kicks me out? When I left does that mean I'm no longer his SilkWing and I'm technically breaking into his-- no, he won't. Radiant assured herself. She opened the door and looked to her right to see Locust's door slightly ajar. She walked over to it and took a deep breath before talking.

"Hey, stupid HiveWing..." she began with a hollow laugh. "I'm back, yay!.. I just wanted to say that I'm-- I'm sorry for yelling at you. You were, and still are, not like those other HiveWings. You just want to see me genuinely happy, and I'm glad for that."

Radiant got no response.

"It's okay if you're still mad at me, in fact I'd expect you to still be mad at me. I've been acting like a LeafWing's droppings ever since I got here and-- oh yeah! I got to tell you this weird thing that happened while I was out of the Hive. Oh, and I also left the Hive when I was mad at you." Radiant dryly chuckled. She waited for a response, but nothing happened. 

"Are you still alive in there?" she joked as she knocked on the door. The door creaked open to reveal that Locust wasn't inside. 

"He must be downstairs then." she said to herself. Radiant rushed downstairs to see that Locust still wasn't there and the letter that began this whole mess was ripped to shreds. "Where are you?" she called out. She looked around the kitchen, the living room, everywhere. Locust wasn't there. 

"Maybe he's out getting something in the bazaar..." Radiant convinced herself. She ran out and walked into the bazaar. It was silent. None of the stalls were lit and no dragon was in the entire area (except for Radiant). She ran into the post office to see that no dragon was in there either. 

"Okay, if this is a joke it's not funny!" Radiant called out. Radiant ran back to the house and looked around. 

"Locust? Please tell me you're okay!" she called out. Radiant flew upstairs back to Locust's room and quickly ran inside. She looked around frantically before remembering what happened yesterday with Yellow Jacket Hive. 

"But she couldn't have taken all of them..." she whispered to herself. Radiant was about to walk out before something caught her eye. A small piece of silk paper on the ground with some writing on it. Radiant picked it up to see it was a note from Locust.

I don't know if you're reading this now, Radiant, but I'm sorry. I don't know if I'll even still be in the house if you ever come back. Wasp is rounding them all up. HiveWings, SilkWings, everybody. If I'm not here if you're reading this, don't look for me. Run as fast as you can from the Hives and hide, then you'll have some time before she finds you. I don't know where I'll go when she takes control of me, but just please don't look

Then the note stops right there. Radiant felt a pang in her heart as the realization struck her. "He's gone."


	8. Chapter 8; “Friend”

She took a step back and dropped the note. She slowly grew more angry with each second that passed, all of it directed to Wasp. Radiant then shook her head, regaining her composure, and took the note.

"I'm sorry, Locust. I'm not letting you die." she said to the note. She ran downstairs and spotted her food basket. She grabbed the entire thing and took a piece of kale from her basket to gnaw on. She walked up the stairs to the balcony and took a deep breath. She saw Wasp Hive in the distance, giving her a boost of motivation.

"Home, here I come." she whispered to herself as she opened her wings to fly. She flapped them and raised herself into the air, overlooking the savanna and began to fly to Wasp Hive. While flying, she was plagued with thoughts of what was happening to Locust. She hated thinking of what he-- no, Wasp was doing with him. She contemplated a few times on if this was the right thing. He was just another dumb HiveWing, but he was a likeable dumb HiveWing in Radiant's eyes. She sometimes broke away from her thoughts to stare at the beautiful land. She saw herds of elephants scattered across the ground with zebras being chased by the occasional lioness. The treeless wasteland was both mesmerizing and haunting to her. With each wing beat her determination to save Locust grew stronger and stronger. She contemplated the idea of finding Wasp and pounding the honey out of her, but realized she'd probably have all of Pantala on her side. While flying, she was haunted by the question she had yet to understand.

"Why?"

There was no reason for why Wasp would round up all of the dragons and take them to Wasp Hive. If she got all of a sudden paranoid, that would make sense, but what would she paranoid about? The burning of Bloodworm Hive, perhaps... She began to feel tired and saw the sun far in the distance setting. She flew down beside a few zebras and set up camp.

"Ughh.. Why didn't I bring a blanket?" she questioned herself. Radiant pressed herself against the dry grass and groaned. A nearby zebra walked over to her and sniffed her antennae a bit, causing them to retreat backwards.  
"Go on, get." she whispered, poking the Zebra with her horns gently. The zebra snorted, as if to say "Gee, thanks for being so nice to me." and walked off to join it's family. Radiant snorted, blowing some hay off of her snout, and closed her eyes drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, Radiant woke up to a rumbling stomach. She reached into her basket for food, only to find scraps.

"Those stupid zebras!" Radiant cursed. She groaned and stoked her stomach, trying to make herself feel better. She spotted a Hive in the distance, however. If this Hive was as empty as the other Hives, perhaps Radiant could raid it and get some food. She struggled to her feet, and lifted herself into the air. The musty smell of savanna was getting old to Radiant and she just wanted to get this nightmare over with. She flew for a half an hour before reaching the Hive. The Hive had a faint orange hue to the treestuff that was built from it. She landed on the Hive to hear no sound, absolutely nothing at all.

"Abandoned like usual, good." Radiant smirked. She walked around the empty Hive, checking in small dorms and houses until coming to the center of the Hive. Instead of a bazaar being there, the Hive's palace was there. "That's quite bizarre. Heh, 'bazaar'." Radiant chuckled to herself. She checked the doors, noticing they were unlocked.

"How convenient of them to leave the doors unlocked." She grinned. She walked inside to see a massive hall of orange and yellow stripes. She saw the throne in front of her and a room off to the right side. Radiant could practically smell the foliage coming from that room. She walked over to it, feeling happy as can be and excited to eat some quality food. She saw the inside and found herself in a greenhouse connected to the room. On the front it said "TSETSE HIVE GREENHOUSE" and inside was rows upon rows of vegetables and grain. Streams of water flowed through the greenhouse and Radiant took a deep breath before going to pick some food. Suddenly, she heard a small yelp noise from the other side of the greenhouse. It scared her slightly, as she thought she was alone this entire time. Across a few hedges of vegetables, two white lines were moving hypnotically before curling up.

"Listen, SilkWing. Get up before I make you." Radiant snarled. The creature lifted it's head to reveal a sapphire blue and white SilkWing. It stood up slowly and cocked it's head to its side.

"I didn't know any other dragons were left behind--"

"Listen, just let me get the food and I'll get out of your scales. I don't need any more trouble." Radiant groaned. She yanked a chunk of yam out of the ground and the SilkWing screamed.

"Oh, no-no-no.. That's for the mister and mistress. I get the stuff over there. You could have some if you want." The blue SilkWing pointed to a disturbingly dank and dark pile of rotting food in the corner of the room.

"Yeah, no thanks. I'll stick with this."

"But you CAN'T! The mister and mistress will get mad if you do!"

"Oh my Clearsight," Radiant groaned. "They. Aren't. Here. I do not care if you are stuck with that disgusting pile over there. I'm taking the stuff and leaving." she yelled. Radiant yanked the rest of the yam out of the ground and began to walk over. Suddenly, she was toppled over by a force ramming into her side.

"You must not steal from the greenhouse." The SilkWing lectured, snatching the yams out of Radiant's talons and placing them back.

"Hey! I was going to eat those!"

"Stealing is wrong, you shouldn't steal from the mister and--"

"Who even are these dragons?!" Radiant roared, causing the SilkWing to flinch.

"You-- you don't know who they are?"  
"Is it Tsetse or something?"

"Oh, no-no-no. Tsetse lives on that side," the SilkWing ushered her tail over to the left side.

"Okay... Then who are they?" Radiant asked. The SilkWing groaned and lifted up her front left arm. On the white scales was a nasty and ugly scar in the shape of a cricket, looking like it was burned into the dragon's scales a long time ago. Radiant held back her shock and awaited for the SilkWing to respond.

"Duchess Paralyze and Duke Cosmophasis." the SilkWing said cheerfully.

"Ugh!.. Did they like.. Brand their mark into your scales?" The blue SilkWing nodded. "How can you be so calm about this?"

"My name is Adonis. What's yours?" the SilkWing asked, ignoring the question. Radiant looked behind herself and looked back at Adonis in disarray.

"You know, I'll just leave." Radiant said. She walked out of the door, trying to escape from that SilkWing. She ran outside the palace and caught her breath to think. So, Locust's parent's are kooky, crazy, and treat their SilkWings like garbage. Thank Clearsight I got the normal one in the bunch. she thought to herself. She began to think more and more of what she could do before getting interrupted by the sound of a high pitched voice.

"You're leaving already?" Adonis asked.

"Yes, I am. And I would like it if you didn't follow me."

"But, there's nobody here."

"Yes, there isn't. Don't tell me you just realized that." Radiant snapped. Adonis stayed silent, as if what Radiant said was correct.

"I want to come with you." Adonis said bluntly.

"Aww, thanks... No." Radiant said and began to walk away.

"HEY! HEY! Please! Can I just come with you? It's so lonely in the palace--"

"Then leave."

"I will, with you."

"I literally just met you a few minutes ago and now you're trusting me enough to follow me to Wasp Hive?"

"You're going to Wasp Hive?" Adonis asked. Radiant groaned and lifted herself in the air.

"Thanks for being a waste of time for me." Radiant yelled. She turned away from Tsetse Hive and began to fly towards Yellow Jacket Hive. All of a sudden, she heard a voice from behind her.

"Why are you going to Wasp Hive?" Adonis asked.

"DID I NOT JUST ASK YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

"Yes."

"THEN WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING?!"

"Because I want to come with you. You seem fun." Adonis perked. Her wings were flapping uncomfortably, as if she hasn't flown in months.

Radiant sighed. "Fine! You can come with me, but if things get rough, I'm leaving you behind."

"Wait, really?"

"Do you want me to knock you out of the sky right now?"

"No, not really."

"Alright, cool." Adonis and Radiant flew the rest of the way to Yellow Jacket Hive in silence. The sun was high in the sky at this point and Radiant was getting more annoyed at it.

"It was a dumb idea to go out here."

"What do you mean by that?" Adonis asked.

"I'm risking my life to save a stupid idiot."

"Why?"

Radiant paused. "I don't know, honestly. He's nice and pretty dumb."

"What's his name?"

"Locust." Radiant said. Adonis stayed silent for a while before speaking up again.

"Like, THE Locust? The son of the mister and mistress."

"I guess." Radiant shrugged.

"Then where's your brand?" Adonis questioned.

"Am I supposed to have a brand?"

"Yes, you are." Adonis groaned, pointing to her branding on her forearm.

Radiant just shrugged. "Don't know. Probably because he isn't a TERRIBLE person like his parents."

"Hey! Don't you say that about the mister and mistress--"

"Can you just not call them that? They aren't as important as you think."

Adonis snorted. "Really? Then who ELSE trades the SilkWings?"

"You say that like trading dragons with lives and goals like cards is a good thing." Radiant critiqued. Adonis sighed and Radiant began to fly down to Yellow Jacket Hive. Her stomach was still roaring from hunger, though hopefully this time she actually finds food without having an annoying SilkWing join her.

"You know your way around this Hive?" Radiant asked.

"Nope. You?"

"I guess we're both in the same park," Radiant groaned. "Come with me, if we ever do find it you could carry extra."

"Extra what?" Adonis asked.

"Food, duh!"

"Clearsight alive, is that all you think about?"

"At least I don't think about my owner all the time." Radiant snarled back before realizing why she's out here again. Radiant must have had a shift in her facial expression when she remembered because Adonis began to cackle.

"Serves you right. How about we try to find at least ONE vendor."

"Don't tell me you actually think that we're going to buy food when literally everybody else is missing from their Hives." Radiant said tiredly.

"Well, it would be the right thing to do."

"Nobody is here, stupid."

"HEY! I'm not stupid!" Adonis yelled. Radiant moved her wings to show that the Hive was completely abandoned.

"Nobody's here to even take the money."

"Mh-hm, and?"

"Ugh! You're insufferable!" Radiant groaned.

"Thanks for the compliment." Adonis smirked. Both dragons began to walk into the Hive. While walking, Radiant had to keep her eyes on Adonis, just in case she tried to do something funny. Perhaps she was working with the HiveWings and was going to try and trick Radiant into being taken away like Locust.

"So, why are you coming along with me again?"

"Same reason you are. It's my duty to keep the mister and mistress safe."

"Really? That was you job? It wasn't like being their servant or something?" Radiant joked.

"Well, weren't you technically duke Locust's servant as well?"

"Oh shut up..." Radiant rolled her eyes at Adonis and continued walking through the abandoned Hive. It was eerie and quiet, something Radiant would normally enjoy, but now that she got her wish she felt unnerved. The silence of a once busy Hive only made Radiant feel more alone, even with Adonis by her side.

"Is something wrong?" Adonis asked, breaking the silence between them. "You look scared."

Radiant quickly changed her expression to something more serious. "Scared? Ha! I'm not scared."

"Really? Cause you looked like you were about to pass out." Adonis smirked.

"Can't you be useful and go look for a stall with food or something?" Radiant snapped. Her stomach was growling more and more with each passing second.

"Can do." Adonis sighed and walked along the stalls to find food. Radiant wandered along the streets and sat down at a fountain in the center of the Hive. The fountain was made from stone and was in the shape of Wasp standing over the corpse of a LeafWing. She could see Adonis looking over for food far away and realized she could just run away this moment. She could just fly away and not have to have Adonis on her tail constantly.

But she wouldn't. She didn't want to leave her all alone. Locust wouldn't be pleased about that for starters, but something about her told her that she couldn't just leave Adonis alone. Not when both are looking for their friends, even if Adonis's 'friends' are her owners. "Hey, bluey! Found any food?" Radiant yelled from across the bazaar.

"Don't call me 'bluey'!" Adonis yelled. "Also I found pieces of lion tail. They still look fresh!" She held up three unskinned tails above her head and waved them around. Radiant gagged and waved her talons.

"Have you seen literally anything ELSE but meat?"

"Nope, not yet!" Adonis yelled as she threw back the tails and walked over to Radiant. "Clearsight alive, you yell pretty loud. My voice hurts just talking to you from over there."

"You were like a hundred feet from me."

"Yeah, I know! It's insane isn't it?" Adonis exclaimed. Radiant let out a long sigh and stretched out her wings. "You have pretty wings." Adonis said, pointing to Radiant's red and white wings.

"Err, thanks? You have nice wings too, I guess." Radiant inspected her own wings and tried to wonder what Adonis saw in them that looked 'pretty'. Both dragons sat in silence for a while before Adonis spoke up again.

"What Hive are you from?" she asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Being from different Hives can explain why your personality is like it is. You look like you're from Jewel Hive."

"I'm from Wasp Hive." Radiant spoke in a dull tone.

There was a brief moment of silence between both dragons before Adonis spoke again.

"Wow... How can you be so mean then?"

"Hey! I'm not 'mean'. I'm perfectly fine personality wise." Radiant smirked. Adonis stared at her slack-jawed and shook her head a bit before talking again.

"I just didn't expect you to be like that. Usually Wasp Hive SilkWings are--"

"Docile? Nice? Indoctrinated like you?"

"I'm sorry, 'indoctrinated'? Do I look like a mindless slave?"

"You practically worship Locust's parents."

"You're going on a suicide mission to save him."

"So are you."

Adonis kept quiet for a minute. "You do have a point..." she shrugged.

"Back to the point, why did you want to know where I was from?"

"Because, I've only been from Tsetse Hive and I've never really met any SilkWings from any other Hive except Jewel Hive."

"Why Jewel?"

"The mister and mistress got another servant once."

"What happened to them?" Radiant leaned in to listen carefully, curious as to if anything happened to this unnamed SilkWing.

"They were like you, but they said something at the wrong time and place. They were sent somewhere to 'have a talk about their thoughts on Wasp' and I've never seen them since."

Radiant didn't know how to respond for the longest of time. She decided to try and change the subject since she was still starving and needed food. "Well, that sucks. You hungry? I can go find the food you couldn't find."

"It's not like it wasn't TRYING to find food, just that you're picky."

"Not my fault that I hate the taste of meat."

"Well, why's that?" Adonis questioned.

"I-- err... I don't really want to say-- can you just sit here and wait for me to get some food?" Radiant snapped. Adonis sat still and Radiant turned to the stands. A cool breeze flew through Radiant's antennae as she walked over to a lavender purple coloured stand. Inside were red gems, small blankets, and tiny figures of Wasp. She rolled her eyes and moved onto a golden yellow bar not too far off. She jumped over the stools and walked in the kitchen to see charred meat over a barely flickering fire. Radiant kept on searching the bar to find a small crate with the words "GREENS' on it. She grabbed it and walked out of the bar and back to Adonis.

"You're back! I half expected you to just leave me."

Radiant thought about replying with 'Yeah, I don't know why I'm not gone yet', but decided just to keep quiet. "I found some food." the red dragon said. She stabbed a talon into the edge of the crate and wedged it open to reveal a load of cabbage and radishes.

"Ooh! You picked a nice one," Adonis picked up a radish and tapped it. "It's not all mushy and gross." Radiant grabbed a cabbage and peeled off a bit of it before chowing down.

"Perhaps we should rest here for the night. Find some more food to bring with us and book it to Wasp Hive." Radiant said. Adonis looked at her radish and sighed.

"But maybe we shouldn't..."

"What do you mean by that? Of course we're going there!"

"I mean, like you said it's a suicide mission. If we go there and she finds out we escaped the collection, she'll hang us!" Adonis cried. Radiant let out a deep sigh.

"I didn't come this far to chicken out. Listen, we go in there and we find that family. I'm not dying until I find him and keep him safe." Radiant gave Adonis a empty smile and got up. "How about we make a fire?"

"A fire? Here? Why?"

"Because why not?"

"You can burn the entire Hive down!"

"So? Nobody unevolved with get hurt. I could break the fountain and fill it with treestuff--"

"Break the fountain?! Are you mad?"

"Maybe, but it'll be fun. You need some fun in your sad life."

"My life isn't sad!" Adonis yelled. Radiant raised her left eyebrow and walked away from the fountain. She went to some market and started to pull apart stands that had a bit of treestuff attached to it. After half an hour Radiant got quite a few talonfuls of it and went back to Adonis, whom was still sitting at the fountain.

"Can you help me disable the fountain?" Radiant asked, putting down the mountain of treestuff. Adonis shook her head and Radiant grumbled to herself. She then went to the mountain of treestuff and looked around for something to start the fire. She picked up two tiny sticks ang began to rub them together on the floor of the bazaar. After a few minutes, a small spark appeared and the treestuff caught on fire. Radiant stepped back from the flames and sat on the fountain with Adonis, who was scooting father from the flames as the seconds went by.

"Can you NOT though?" Adonis questioned.

"Not what? This is fun." Radiant pointed to the now growing flames and made a weak smile.

"I don't find it fun. We're just burning property of others." Adonis said, grabbed another radish from the box.

"Aw, you're no fun." Radiant waved her talons in the air, dismissing Adonis. Both stared into the fire for a minute or two before Adonis spoke up again.

"I didn't get your name, by the way."

"My name?" Radiant asked before remembering them both at Tsetse Hive, how Adonis introduced herself and Radiant just walked away. "Oh, yeah. It's Radiant."

"That's a nice name, though you're anything BUT radiant."

"Hey!" Radiant yelled, though she was too tired to argue with Adonis again. 

Both dragons kept quiet for a long time afterwards; it was only until the small cinders of the fire burned up when Radiant spoke up again. It was nightfall and the crickets were beginning to hum and play in her ears.

"I think I'm going to sleep—" Radiant cut herself off to see Adonis sleeping on the side of the fountain, wrapped up in her blue wings. Radiant got up and wandered through the bazaar. It was peaceful, quiet. The smell of the breeze filled her nostrils and the only noise besides the crickets were the sounds of Radiant's footsteps echoing through the Hive. 

For once, Radiant felt at peace. That was until the reminder of why she was here struck her once more. The breeze blew though the bazaar, chilling Radiant. She noticed a small stand nearby and walked over to it. In it was a collection of blankets and carpets. Unsurprisingly, she took them all and went back to the fountain. The sounds of running water soothed her ears more and more as she came closer to it. She laid the carpets and blankets down on the ground and was about to sleep before noticing Adonis, cold and alone. She could see her shivering, and almost muttering in her sleep. Radiant got up, picked the SilkWing up from off the fountain and placed her on the floor. Radiant then laid down a carpet and placed a few blankets on Adonis before crawling back into her own bundle of warmth. She rested her head on her talons and drifted off to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Sun.

The terrible, terrible sun has always been the bane of Radiant's existence. She hated it to the point where her blood would boil just thinking about it. Radiant hated the stupid sun, so being in the sun for days while going from Hive to Hive to get to Hornet Hive didn't help her mood. 

"Hey! How much longer!" Radiant asked, annoyed. 

"Shut it, SilkWing." the HiveWing guard snapped back. Radiant grumbled to herself as the sun kept on beating her down. Radiant looked over and saw the vast savanna to her side from the Hives, longing to just escape right into it. Radiant could practically see every dragon in the passing Hives stare at her, which only made her more irritated. Stupid Hives.. Stupid HiveWings.. Radiant thought to herself as she snarled at a nearby HiveWing dragonet. Radiant stood out from the usual SilkWings, having red scales and white under scales. Her horns were ruby red with stripes of white, much like her body. Her red and white wings shone gloriously like fresh blood in the snow. The HiveWing guard made a left and led Radiant through the crowded market. 

"Hey, this wasn't a part of the agreement. You've never done this before!.." Radiant said angrily. 

"I know, it isn't. I just felt like, mh, making you more public." the HiveWings said. Radiant groaned to herself as she continued through the market. Countless dragons and dragonets pointed at Radiant, most of them admiring her scales; whenever this happened she'd just hiss at them. I don't need more dragons looking at me. Radiant thought as she scared off a HiveWing no older than a few months. 

After a few more painful hours of going through from Hive to Hive, they finally reached Hornet Hive. 

"Oh thank CLEARSIGHT!" groaned Radiant as she hopped into the Hive. It was no different than Wasp Hive structurally (or whatever the nerd SilkWings would say), and yet Radiant was glad to be out of that snake hole. The orange HiveWing leading her through the Hive smiled smugly at Radiant. 

"Lucky you." he said as he continued walking. 

"Yeah, lucky me for being forced to work for some HiveWing." Radiant said mockingly. 

"Oh no, not just any HiveWing, the LeafWing HiveWing." The HiveWing said. Radiant tilted her head, confused. 

"What do you mean?" she said. The HiveWing chuckled meanly. 

"You'll see." he giggled as he kept walking. Radiant, now slightly curious, picked up her pace and walked alongside the HiveWing. 

"Stay back, SilkWing. It's a surprise you learned no manners in the Wasp Hive." the HiveWing grumbled. The schools did try to "fix" Radiant's unruly behavior and volatile attitude. They constantly put her on Misbehaviors Way, on show for the surrounding HiveWings. It did no use, if anything it made her even worse. They walked through the Hive and Radiant began to notice something. It wasn't uncommon to see the Hive ruler's emblem EVERYWHERE, to the point Radiant practically had Wasp's emblem of a wasp burned into her skull. Yes, there were still symbols of hornets around, but another emblem came around a few times. An emblem showing a jade green cricket-like bug. Peculiar.. thought Radiant as she kept on walking by. 

Radiant and the HiveWing stopped at a door. The door was much bigger than usual, which struck Radiant as odd. The HiveWing knocked on the door three times and the door opened. A green snout poked through the small crack in the door and spoke.

"Are they here?" a soft voice said. 

"Yes, Duke Locust." the HiveWing said, his smug grin fading. The door opened more and Radiant nearly jumped out of her scales when she saw the dragon. At first, Radiant thought it was a LeafWing, but then quickly realized it was a jade green HiveWing. The HiveWing wore a kind smile, clearly a facade. The HiveWing stepped forward from his door into the sunlight. 

"Bit of a hot few days.. I hope there wasn't any trouble bringing them!.." the green HiveWing said to the HiveWing.

"Oh, there were no problems, except for her." the orange HiveWing said, pointing at Radiant. Radiant's antennae curled in on themselves as the green HiveWing came closer. 

"Good day, my name is Locust." the HiveWing said with a bow. 

"Are you bowing to me? HA!" Radiant said. "Don't bother bowing to me, by the end of the day I'd be surprised if you didn't already kill me." Radiant laughed. Locust gave Radiant a slightly concerned look. 

"I don't believe I will. You, HiveWing, you are relieved of your duties. I hope your leader pays you well," Locust said. The HiveWing bowed quickly and flew off. "Come now, it's too hot outside for any dragon." Locust said, inviting Radiant inside the beautiful house.

Radiant followed him into the house and was floored by the beauty of the place. It was clean, full of green and black padded furniture and potted plants. A large chandelier hung from the roof and the hard tile floor had the jade green cricket in the center of the room. Radiant noticed that the house had another floor and the main staircase spiraled from the center of the room right before the jade cricket. Wow.. Radiant thought to herself. 

“Is it okay? Most dragons usually think it’s amazing, but I don’t know..” Locust said, breaking Radiant out of her thought. 

“It’s meh.” she said, walking over to a couch. She sat down and tried to not stare at everything in amazement. 

“So, what’s the deal? You wanted me, of all dragons, to come to your house and slave over a broom cleaning everything?” Radiant said. 

“I wouldn’t you’d have to do that. I just wanted some extra help cleaning the place and you seemed like a nice fit.” Locust replied, trying to sit down. Radiant moved over to the side before he could fully sit down, trying to stay as far away from him. 

“So, what kind of closet did you get prepared for me?” Radiant asked. 

“‘Closet’? You’re getting a room, you’re not an animal!...” Locust replied, nearly floored. Radiant scoffed. He must be joking. No HiveWing would treat a SilkWing kindly, not without it being a sick joke or for their own selfish reasons. She thought to herself. “Are you okay?..” Locust asked, a bit concerned. “You look terribly worried and upset, I can get you something..“ he continued, putting one of his wings on Radiant. She quickly jumped back and hissed aggressively. 

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” She snarled. 

“Okay, okay.. I won’t..” Locust said, putting his front legs up in surrender. Radiant still growled at Locust, weary of what he'd do to her. HiveWings are evil. They are stupid and full of hate. Radiant thought to herself. 

"Do you want some food? I can make you whatever you want." Locust offered, trying to brush off the threat Radiant yelled at him. 

"I'm not hungry." Radiant said, lowering her guard. No, he wants me to feel safe. He wants be to think he's nice so he can torture me. Radiant thought to herself. 

"Alright, suit yourself. Let me guess, you also want to get to bed as early as you can?" He guessed. It was true, Radiant did want to see her bed. "It's upstairs and to the left. I even bought a sign for you telling you where to go." he added.

"Okay.." Radiant said, walking towards the stairs. As she walked up she never broke eye contact with him.

Once Radiant got up the stairs she instantly noticed that there were two hallways. To her left had flowers, a silk rug, and a sign saying "SilkWing go here", while the other had green tapestries on the walls and a jade green rug. Chances are I go to the left Radiant thought sarcastically. She walked over to the left, slightly scratching the sign out of spite. She walked into the room and was floored with how big and beautiful it was. A bed three times as big as normal sat there ever so elegantly. A fountain designed to look like water was running down sat in the middle of the room. To her side was a massive bookshelf stretching to the ceiling itself full of fresh and clean books. 

This. This is nice. Radiant thought before remembering that it's most likely a trap to make her feel safe. She walked over to the massive bed and hesitantly crawled into it. The bed felt as though she was laying on a cloud and sunk deep into the bed. She felt comfortable for the first time in her life, but she still didn’t trust it. She felt a wave of drowsiness overcome her, but she refused and stayed up for most of the night before passing out.

The next morning Radiant awoke to find herself still alive and not hurt in the slightest. She got up and walked down the hall and was greeted by the smell of cooked meat. Her nose and antennae curled in on themselves in disgust and flew down the stairs. 

“You’re up early.” Locust said. Radiant saw him in the kitchen with a fire going. On the fire was a pan with some meat on it. 

“Don’t tell me you’re going to make me... Eat that...” Radiant gagged in disgust. Locust’s eyes looked at her in surprise.

“You don’t like zebra meat?”

“I don’t like meat. PERIOD.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t like that. I can go out and get some fruit from the market if you’d like. You could even join me to pick out the fruit you’d like.” Locust suggested. Radiant snorted, but considered it.

“Sure, but only because you’d probably screw it up anyways and get me, I don’t know, fruit meat if I wasn’t there.” she hissed a bit aggressively. 

“Thanks for the compliment.” Locust said with a smile on his face and grabbed a small black bag.

“Does literally everything you own come in the colour of green and black?” Radiant asked, astonished that so many things are just one of two colours. Locust stiffened a bit.

“Perhaps.. Anyways, you ready?” Locust said, checking his bag and pulling out a scale. Radiant looked at her talons, she didn’t bring anything with her when she left Wasp Hive and it would be nice to get something.

“Yeah I’m ready.” Radiant admitted and walked out of the door without even waiting for Locust.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Locust said, running out of the house and to Radiant. He caught up to Radiant and let out an exhausted sigh. “You walk fast.” he complimented. Radiant didn’t say anything and walked to the left a little more to stay away from him.

“So.. What was it like in Wasp Hive? I never really been there before, only a few times for family stuff.” Locust asked. Radiant turned her snout away from him, refusing to talk. “Not too happy to talk about it? I see, I’ll just shut up.” Locust said and both dragons continued walking in silence.

They both got to the market in Hornet Hive, which was rather big for what it was worth. Lanterns of an unknown material lit up the entire bazaar and the sounds of HiveWings bargaining filled the outdoor market. 

“We can go over here first,” Locust said, pointing to a bar. “We could probably ask them for some fruit.” Locust walked over there and Radiant tailed behind. A few HiveWings and SilkWings stopped to stare at Locust and Radiant could hear them whispering, probably about her.

“Hold it, why are you following the Duke?” a HiveWing guard asked Radiant, stepping in front of her.

“None of your business.” Radiant hissed. She kept trying to walk by but the HiveWing wouldn't budge. Then, a jade green paw landed on the HiveWing's shoulder.

"She's with me," Locust said and the HiveWing looked at him with a mildly shocked look then stepped out of the way. Radiant looked at the yellow HiveWing guard smugly and walked along with Locust. "You can say thank you now." Locust said jokingly. Radiant rolled her eyes at him. Both dragons then walked up to the bar and were greeted with the smell of cooking meat. Radiant gagged for a bit and the HiveWing chef just looked at her annoyed.

"If you can't handle meat getting cooked, then get out." the HiveWing chef snorted. Radiant snarled back at the chef.

“Hey, do you have any fruit to spare?” Locust asked calmly.

“Don’t know, but if I have to go look it’ll cost ya’.”

“Come on, I’m one of your regulars!”

“You’ve been to my bar all of two times.”

“How would you know that?” Locust questioned. The chef picked up a sharp blade and pointed at Locust’s green scales.

“With scales like that, I’d remember.” The chef growled before spitting at the floor. Locust flinched in disgust before sighing in defeat.

“Fine, how much?” he asked.

“Ten scales, just to look.” Said the chef. Locust groaned and put ten scales on the counter. The chef snattched them up and walked into the back room.

“Are you brainless? You could’ve gotten scammed and that little rat would’ve gotten away with your scales.” Radiant criticized. Locust shrugged and smugly looked at her.

“Doesn’t matter. And besides, why would you care about me losing money?” Locust childishly questioned. Radiant’s antennae straightened out in annoyance. Footsteps momentarily paused their conversation as the chef came out with a large crate. The chef threw it onto the counter, shaking the entire bar and causing a few bits of yam to fall out.

“Found a thing of yams and kale.” The chef said, plugging his nostrils. The box smelt like vomit that was left unclean and sat in the sun for a full week. Radiant gagged a bit and Locust got up and ushered Radiant to come to.

“No thanks, maybe we’ll find another place.” Locust said, offering his talons to hold her. Radiant turned her head and kept walking.

“That box smelt like death.” Radiant thought out loud. Locust chuckled and spoke up.

“It did. Are vegetables supposed to smell like that? My folks didn’t really force us to eat that junk,” Locust joked. “Besides… I could probably pay off a HiveWing to go to the Mantis Hive or Cicada Hive to get something for you and fast. You look famished.” It was true, Radiant was quick thin, even for a SilkWing. Radiant took it as an insult and just groaned annoyed. 

“If we’re not getting me food… How about something else?” Radiant suggested.

“Nice idea. What would you like?” 

“You’re… Asking me? Anything in this market you can buy for me?”

“Yeah. Go ahead, it’s your choice.” Radiant looked around the market. Nothing really caught her eye, except for an orange and yellow market stand. She walked over to it and saw a vast display of carpets. Some orange, some green, some red, some purple. One that got her attention was a very light pink carpet with a white exterior.

"That one doesn't look ugly." Radiant said, pointing to the carpet. Locust walked over, chatted with the vendor, and came back with carpet in hand.

"It's a pretty one, eh'?" he asked. Radiant shrugged and walked away, but not before waiting for Locust.

Both dragons came back to the house and walked inside.

"Sorry about not getting you any food." Locust apologized. Radiant just snorted, she didn't really care if she ate today. She's gone days without food, so a few hours would be fine.

"It's nothing. Anyways, can I have the carpet now?" Radiant asked. Locust grabbed it and dropped it into Radiant's talons gently. Radiant walked up to her room and sat down in the middle of it, trying to figure out where to put it. She then settled to put it right at the foot of her bed. As she laid it down, a thought struck her.

What if that HiveWing isn't that bad? she thought about it for a bit. It seemed outlandish and stupid, considering what monsters all of them are, but this one seemed to just be... Nice? If he really was evil he would've stung her and handed her into the guards the first chance he got, but after all she's done he's still patient with her. No HiveWing could be this resistant to her, unless it was a trick; yet something about Locust didn't strike her as that type of HiveWing. She shook off the thought and kept on patting down the carpet to destroy any and all ruffles. She stood up from her carpet and smirked for the first time in a while at it. She walked around her room for a bit, proud of her taste in design, then strutted out of her room.

She was going down the hallway before stopping at the balcony window, noticing the shades of purple and orange from the setting sun. Radiant was mesmerized by it for a bit, despite everything that was terrible about it, the sun can be pretty at times. Radiant stepped out onto the balcony, the cool summer's breeze brushing against her wings. She sat down on the balcony and gazed off into the distance, admiring the sunset. She began to think, to think about perhaps flying away. Flying into the savannah, never to be seen again; free from worries and the terribleness of the Hives. Then, the sound of the balcony door creaking open startled her, breaking her out of thought and putting her into a state of aggression.

"Oh, sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to ask if I could join you." said the jade green dragon. Radiant grumbled, but did not reject his request. She did not move an inch, but Locust sat down beside her.

"The carpet you bought earlier is nice. Looks good with the room." Radiant said, trying not to say thank you. Locust sighed and giggled a bit.

"You know, it's okay to say 'thank you'. Nobody's going to get mad if you say it--"

"It's just a nice carpet." Radiant snapped back. She felt a small pang in her heart after yelling and looked at her talons in guilt.

"I'm just saying that it's okay to be thankful. Nobody's going to sting you or yell at you for doing something wrong, at least I'm not." Locust said, his forest green eyes looking at Radiant with a caring expression. Radiant shifted as memories of Misbehavior's Way and the constant belittlement of HiveWings and even her own clawmates and parents filled her mind.

"Are you sure?" Radiant choked out. She felt unsure about everything, it could all be a rouse made by Locust to try and speak about her disloyalty to Wasp to punish her, but yet...

"I'm sure. You're safe and trust me when I say this, everything is going to be alright." Locust then moved his tail slightly, putting it against Radiant's tail. Her tail shot back, before inching back up to Locust's tail hesitantly. Her tail brushed against his tail, then she lifted it up to rest it on his tail. Both dragons gazed off into the sunset in silence, as nothing else in the world cared to them.

Radiant, surprisingly, woke up in her own bed. She couldn't remember going into her own bed from last night; all she remembered was laying down after a few hours and something warm picking her up as she fell asleep. She came out of her room and walked down stairs to see Locust sitting on his couch, leaning over a stack of papers made from silk.

"Oh, morning Radiant!" Locust said. Radiant still felt a bit uncomfortable with him saying her name, which even surprised her considering last night.

"Morning. What are you doing?" she asked, trying to look over his shoulder.

"Boring family stuff."

"Like what?"

"Don't really know, my parents are kind of secretive about it for no reason. All I do is calculate the cost of these transactions." Locust said. Radiant then noticed a slap of wood beside Locust with tally marks in it.

"So you're just counting numbers? How do you not even know what you're even doing?" Radiant asked, dumbfounded.

"That's the point. It's just weird... You know, I might just send them a letter when I'm done just to ask."

"You can't just hand it to them?"

"They live in Tsetse Hive, you know, the one for--"

"Old dragons? I know." Radiant flicked her tail a bit before looking at Locust's scales. She'd never seen anything quite like it. Sure, she's seen some dark green HiveWings, but none this shade of jade green. "What's the deal with your scales? Why do they look--"

"Green? Your guess is as good as mine. My parents are also green so I always just assumed we're different."

"Do you think one of your grandparents or great grandparents was a LeafWing?" Locust looked at Radiant confused.

"I don't believe so... I wouldn't want to be related to those creatures," Locust visibly shivered in fear. "I was always sort of bullied for it. Called the 'LeafWing HiveWing' behind my back a few times. Clearsight knows what else I've been called." Radiant didn't even know how to respond. She knew that what he's been through wasn't nearly as bad as what she's suffered through, yet she still felt bad.

"Sounds rough." she ended up saying.

"Anyways, enough about me. How've you been?" Locust said, standing up to stretch his wings out.

"Okay I guess. The bed's nice," Radiant said, rubbing her back with her wings. "Can we not go out today? Just sort of stay inside?" Locust raised his head from his work.

"Why? I mean, I'm fine with it, I have all of this work; but still, why?" Radiant just shrugged and walked to the door.

"Did my fruit come yet?" she asked.

"I heard a knock at the door earlier today, I think it is your fruit."

"Why did you leave it out in the cold?"

"Wanted you to pick it up and to criticize it." Locust joked. Radiant felt a bit offended, but still opened the door. She was greeted with a large box of yams, kale, and other assortments of vegetables. She grabbed the box, making a few pieces of produce fall out. She walked back inside, shut the door, and set the box on the table. She promptly then dug into a nice green piece of kale, ripping it apart and stuffing it all in her gaping mouth.

"Thanks for the food." Radiant said, putting extra emphasis on the 'thanks'. She could see a small smile crack across Locust's face,even from across the room. As Radiant continued to eat the food, she noticed a few wanted posters on the side of the box. She tore one off to inspect it. On the page was the picture of a HiveWing dragonet with golden orange scales and small glasses. Under the picture was the reward price (100 scales) and where the dragonet was seen last. Radiant walked over to Locust, who was still signing papers, and placed down the poster. He stopped for a moment and looked at it.

"Wonder what that one is wanted for." Locust said, picking up the paper. Radiant walked over and grabbed the other two posters, one was for a SilkWing dragonet and the other for a orange and royal blue SilkWing, then placed them down.

"Maybe they all murdered some HiveWing." Radiant scoffed.

"I doubt that. SilkWings are harmless--"

"We are NOT." Radiant rolled her eyes at Locust.

"Most SilkWings are harmless," he corrected. "Maybe the HiveWing is missing and the other SilkWings have nothing to do with them. Or, hey, they could all be separate parties. It does worry me that they're all from the neighbouring Hive." Locust pointed to the text that read "Last seen at Cicada Hive". Radiant just shrugged.

"Who cares? Like you said, WE'RE harmless.”

"Let me guess, you're never going to let that go and constantly remind me of that?"

"Yep." Radiant cracked a small smile and walked away to explore the house. She ended up sitting down on a pure black chair and grabbing a random book off of a green bookshelf and began to read it.

After a half an hour Locust stood up and stretched his wings. Radiant looked to her side to the green HiveWing walk through the house and out the door.

"Hey, didn't you promise to stay inside all day?"

"I know, I just need to mail these things. I'll just go to the post and come back, don't burn down the house while I'm gone!" Locust called out.

"Trust me, I will!" Radiant said, not really sure if she was joking or not. She flexed her antennae and a thought suddenly entered her mind. A sudden desire to see what those papers were about and to find out if he was lying about being oblivious to the true meaning of those papers or not. She poked her head out of the door to see Locust had already taken off. Radiant looked around and then stepped out of the house to look for the truth. The red and white SilkWing wandered around the Hive for a bit before stumbling into the bazaar, which was much quieter than it was yesterday. She puffed up her chest and tried to walk confidently to avoid gaining attention, which failed spectacularly when a HiveWing dragonet came up to her.

"Your scales look pretty, for a SilkWing." the dragonet said. Their tone wasn't mean, but yet it felt like a direct insult to Radiant.

"Go to your mother, HiveWing." Radiant swept her tail and pushed the HiveWing out of her way. She glared back at the HiveWing, then a tiny wave of guilt passed over Radiant. Her face, which was once full of malice, now turned slightly regretful. 

No, what are you DOING?! You hate HiveWings, do you not? All of them are evil and Locust could just be trying to trick you. Radiant told herself. She continued to walk around the bazaar before finding a building with a buzzard on it saying "POST". Radiant walked inside and saw a few HiveWings in front of a long desk. Behind the HiveWings were birds of all species and sizes all screaming and screeching loudly. Radiant walked towards the middle HiveWing, her talons clacking against the metal floor.

"Hello! Welcome to the Hornet Hive Post Office, my name is Hivestripe and how may I help you today?" said the middle HiveWing with fake enthusiasm.

"Did a green HiveWing come in here today?"

"I'm sorry, we're not allowed to give out that sort of information." Hivestripe said with a fake smile. Radiant's antennae straightened out on themselves and she let out a long annoyed sigh.

"Listen, I need to know if he came here or not. If you don't tell me now I will--" Radiant cut herself off. Thousands of ideas to hurt and destroy this building entered her mind and she couldn't pick one.

"What? You will what? Use your antennae to tickle me?" Hivestripe joked. Radiant growled and raised her talons to take a swipe at the HiveWing.

"SilkWing, if you lay a talon on my co-worker we will have to get security." a nearby HiveWing called out.

"See if I care!" Radiant yelled as she swiped down, intentionally missing Gnat and slamming her talons on the table. Radiant stormed off, knowing that this place was a dead end. She walked through the doors and began to make her way back to Locust's house. All attempts of guards, normal passerby's, and other dragons to interact with her or to sell her something were met with either silence or Radiant hissing. 

She walked around the Hive for a bit, retracing her steps to come back to the house, then found Locust in front of the door looking worried.

"Oh, Radiant! I was getting worried that something happened to you--"

"Don't talk to me right now." Radiant snarled as she moved around Locust to get into the house.

"Oh, okay..." Locust closed the door gently behind him and Radiant stomped upstairs to go to her room. "Do you want some food?" he offered.

"I said don't talk to me." she called out and slammed the door behind her. She walked over to her bed and sat onto it. She felt angry, confused, disappointed, scared all at once. She sat in her room and did nothing for hours except think about how terrible the HiveWings are. Then, she heard a knock at her door.

"Radiant? You've been in your room for quite some time now. Is everything okay?" a soft voice asks.

"I'm not okay! I just want... I just want..." Radiant yelled before losing her train of thought. Locust opened the door and slowly walked over to Radiant before sitting down beside her.

"It's okay. I'm not going to get mad at you." Locust assured. Radiant sighed and then sat up from her bed.

"Are you sure?" she asks, unsure if he's lying or not. Locust shook his head and Radiant tried to calm down her shaking talons.

"It'll be alright. Nothing is going to hurt you..." Radiant took a deep breath.

"I just want to be safe... Wasp Hive was never okay. Everybody was mean, including the SilkWings. If they could push me around, why couldn't I? I don't want to be hurt anymore... No more stings, no more hits, no more yelling, no more--" Radiant was cut off by the feeling of something hugging her. She looked to her side and saw Locust wrapping his wings and talons around her.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this. I knew Wasp Hive was always a scary place, but not like this." he said. Radiant tried to squirm out of Locust's grasp before giving up and just letting him hug her. It felt surprisingly nice. Radiant couldn't recall the last time she'd been given a pat on the back (in a loving manner), much less given a hug. She could feel silvery tears run down her face as she hugged Locust back.

"Thank you." Radiant smiled. Locust pulled himself away from a moment and turned his head.

"For what?"

"For picking me. You're the nicest HiveWing I've ever seen in my life." Radiant suddenly realized what she was even saying. She was worried that she'd finally given in and now Locust has his talons around her, but she didn't even care if that was the truth. She just liked having Locust there for her. Locust backed off and smiled kindly.

"I hope tomorrow is a better day for you." he said before heading out. Radiant shook her head viciously to shake off some tears and flexed her talons. She laid back down on her bed, tucked herself into her sheets, and went off to sleep.

The next morning Radiant awoke to the smell of meat. She held back a gag as she got up and walked down the hall. Once more she saw Locust there, cooking meat. By the looks of it she couldn't figure out what animal the meal came from, but she didn't really care what it came from.

"Oh, sorry." Locust apologized. Radiant just plugged her nostrils and walked down stairs.

"Maybe just flap your wings or something to push the smell out of the house." she managed to say, despite having her nose plugged. She walked over to the counter, expecting her box to be there, but instead a small basket full of fresh and tasty food.

"I thought that the last batch wasn't good enough for you, so I ordered some more from Bloodworm Hive. They have the best produce out of all of the Hives apparently," Locust said, taking a break from tending to his food and walking over to Radiant. "Are you going to have that?" he asked, pointing to a nice piece of persimmons.

"Probably not. I've never been a fan of persimmons." Locust took the fruit and hesitantly bit into it. His eyes widened before gagging. Radiant snickers as the green HiveWing was in very visible discomfort. Locust spat out the fruit and laughed a bit.

"I can see why you don't like it. Bleck!" he chuckled as he spat a bit more on the floor. "I can clean it up." Locust said as he walked over to get a cloth and a broom. Radiant chuckled as she walked over to the couch and laid down. Suddenly, Radiant noticed a small fire on the meat. She ran over to it and moved the charred meat from the fire onto a plate.

"Uhh... Locust? Your food is--"

"Oh, talons!" Locust ran over to his meat and sighed disappointedly. "Looks like I have to eat this or starve to death." he joked. He took a bite of the singed meat then made a choking noise and fell to the ground with a thud, all with a smile still on his face. Radiant rolled her eyes.

"Get up, you goof." she said, bushing her tail over to help him. Locust grabbed onto her tail and Radiant heaved him up to his feet.

Radiant and Locust spent the next days doing nothing but talking to each other about random topics. Nothing of interest happened until Radiant heard a knock on the door.

"That could be your food." Locust said as he walked up and opened the door. The delivery HiveWing handed a small package and a little letter to Locust.

"Let me guess, no food?"

"No, work stuff. Hopefully mom and dad answered my question." He tore open the small letter and a small slip of paper came out. He read it with a smile on his face, which slowly faded away. His face turned from happy, to perplexed, to shock, to terror all in the span of a few seconds.

"You don't look so good. Is something wrong with the answer?" Radiant asked. Locust didn't answer her question. He stared at the paper with wide budging eyes. Radiant walked over to Locust to see what was going on, only for him to jump away.

"I'm sorry but I don't think you can read this..." Locust said. He sounded upset and hurt but Radiant couldn't understand why.

"I doubt it's that bad."

"It is that bad though." Radiant rolled her eyes and jumped over the couches and chairs to get to Locust. Locust backed away quickly and lunged away from Radiant. "Please stop chasing me." Locust pleaded dryly. Radiant was laughing and smiling, while Locust never even cracked a grin. Locust flew over the tables and counters and managed to run upstairs. Radiant tailed behind him, getting closer and closer to Locust and the letter. Locust bolted right and ran down the hallway. Radiant was gaining on him and busted into Locust's room.

"I got you now!" Radiant smirked as she lunged to Locust. Then all of a sudden...  
GULP! The letter was gone. Radiant looked around, trying to see where it'd gone, then saw Locust gagging.

"Ugh, this tastes gross..."

"You ATE it?" Radiant burst out into laughter. Locust cracked a smile before returning to his solemn look.

"Never mind the letter, how about we go do something."

"Don't you have work to do?" Radiant questioned. Locust raised his talons to speak, then paused.

"Give me a minute." he said as he maneuvered around Radiant and down the stairs. She walked behind him and saw Locust grab the papers and begin to walk back up the stairs and onto the balcony.

"What are you doing you idio--" Radiant was interrupted by Locust opening the balcony door and tossing the package of papers off the balcony.

"I've decided as of now that this work is too dull and boring for me." Locust exclaimed as the stack of silk papers swung in the breeze. Radiant rolled her eyes and walked up to him.

"So, what do you wanna do?"

"Don't know, anything but work being honest." Radiant looked at him, hiding her curiosities. She was still curious to know what made Locust panic like this and so quick to give up his work life. Part of her was upset that he was keeping secrets, while the other half was relieved that Locust wasn't a COMPLETE workaholic; that would've been insufferable.

Both dragons walked down the stairs and helped themselves to some food. Locust walked over and grabbed a bit of kale.

"Hey, at least this doesn't make me puke my guts out." he joked. Radiant rolled her eyes playfully as she grabbed a yam.

"So anyways, what was the most interesting thing you've done?"

"I don't know, probably go to school. Ha!"  
Radiant stared at Locust mildly shocked. 

"Really? That's it? I've been on that stupid Misbehaviors Way I lost count."

"Really? I was always terrified of going there, what's it like?"

"Hurts for a bit. You just kinda wanna move all over and--" Radiant stopped herself when Locust dropped his piece of kale. His eyes rolled back until his skull and legs all stiffened. Locust automatically flew up and went over to the balcony before flying right out of it.

"Ugh, what now you stupid queen?" Radiant said, making sure nobody was around to hear. She flew over to where Locust was and walked onto the balcony. The smell of smoke and the fumes of treestuff burning was present right there. Radiant plugged her nose and flew out of the smoke and above Hornet Hive to see a Hive far off in the distance, Bloodworm Hive, on fire. "What on Pantala-- What's going on?" she questioned. She saw HiveWings from other Hives autonomously fly over to Bloodworm Hive, trying to put out the fire (Radiant assumed). She felt a sick sense of enjoyment watched the Hive burn; the very thought of all of the evil HiveWings burning in their Hive made her both happy and sick to her stomach. She meditated making a prayer to Clearsight to protect Locust, but instead flew back to the house and waited for him to return. She closed the doors, waved out some smoke, and sat alone in the house. Something about being lonely triggered something with Radiant. A cold feeling of familiar dread washed over her scales as she shifted around alone in the house.

No, you're safe. You're not with them anymore. Radiant thought to herself, but just thinking about her parents and much worse teachers made her feel less safe. She grabbed one of her fox boxes and dug into it, stressing about recurring memories and attempting to relieve herself. The smell of fire and burning got worse the longer time went on and Radiant decided to try and get some sleep while she's waiting. She curled up on the couch and covered herself in a blanket, then after counting a near impossible amount of rolling yams, went to sleep.

"Wake up, SilkWing." a soft, yet cold and distant voice said. Radiant shot awake, realizing what the echo of the voice was. In front of her stood Locust, but his eyes were still blotched out. Wasp was still controlling him. Radiant had gotten used to seeing HiveWings being controlled, but this time seeing Locust unlike himself was a bit uneasy.

"What do you want?" Radiant snarled.

"That's no way to talk to a HiveWing, SilkWing," Locust and the echo sneered. "I've come because my main source of income has been having some questions."

"Like what?"

"What the family business is. I don't wanna break it to you but it's nothing you should worry about, SilkWing. Just ignore everything about this HiveWing's work and stay out of it. Look pretty and do your work, NOW!" Locust screamed, the echo more apparent now. Locust's eyes then rolled back to normal as he fell to the ground.

"First time?" Radiant questioned.

"Clearsight alive what WAS THAT?" Locust questioned. His legs failed to stand him back up a few times before Radiant, hesitantly, helped him up.

"The queen does it, I think." she shrugged.

"Now I can see why nobody wants to make her mad--"

"You seriously never questioned why nobody rebels?" Radiant wanted to add 'I'd love to tear her throne down' but was weary in case Wasp wasn't fully gone yet.

"She was a bit rude to you."

"Eh'... It's nothing much." Radiant shrugged. "What did you do?"

"I don't really know... I was just forced to fly to Bloodworm Hive and to put out the fires. There was... So many bodies just lying, charred and scarred."

"So you don't know why the fire was caused."

"Oh, I do think I know. I heard Wasp's voice and she said something about it being a terror attack, probably from the LeafWings."

"Aren't LeafWings extinct?" Radiant knew this was a stupid question since nobody really explored the Poison Jungle, but still.

"I'm not sure. There've been more posters being put up attacking LeafWings and such."

"How can you tell?"

"I go outside, unlike you." Locust joked.

"Oh, shut up. It's not my fault the stupid sun hates me."

"Why does it hate you?"

"It-- It doesn't-- It doesn't hate me it's just--" Radiant didn't know how to exactly react to such a question. It seemed so stupid, yet she wanted to give a straight answer. "It's just something with the past..." she admitted.

"You know, I don't need to know anything you don't feel comfortable sharing--"

"No, no... You should at least know since we would eventually have this conversation." Locust nodded and sat down on the couch beside Radiant.

"If you say so." he sat down and looked at Radiant, wide eyed and full of interest.

"Okay so, back when my teachers wanted to teach me a lesson. Misbehaviors Way clearly wasn't working and they wanted to try and put it into my head that I needed to 'know my place'. I remember this one piece of work taking me by the tail and tossing me out of the Hive. So, I'm stuck out of Wasp Hive, alone. I don't have wings and no way to get back into the Hive as orders from the teachers until I 'learn'. I'm just there, starving. I'm left to the elements-- and not only that but it's the DRY SEASON. Clearsight, that was probably the worst time of my life."

"How long were you out there for?" asked Locust, clearly disturbed from the story.

"Don't know. I stopped counting after the sun had fallen for the second time."

"You were out there for TWO days?" Locust reached out his talons to try and comfort Radiant but she nudged away, remembering why she hated HiveWings in the first place. Radiant grabbed her scales where her stomach was, remembering the feelings of intense hunger and dehydration.

"So, yeah... That's why I don't like the sun. I think I had heat-stroke out there since I felt so tired and my scales were almost getting darker."

"Poor you... How did you even get back?" Locust said, folding his wings around himself, almost as if he couldn't comprehend how terrible a dragon could be and was trying to shield himself from these experiences.

"I walked for a day away from the Hive, trying to get to Yellow Jacket Hive, then back when I realized I couldn't make it there. By the time I got back I was almost beginning to think I was in the wrong for hating Wasp so getting in wasn't a problem."

"'Almost'?" Locust questioned, hanging onto that one word. Radiant felt as though she had been hit with a bat. Terrible thoughts of Wasp still hiding and observing Locust plagued her, yet she was already found.

Radiant nodded. "Yes, almost."

"Do you-- do you still hate her to this day?"

Radiant paused.

"Yes. After everything her and the HiveWings have done to me, how could I not? What I told you barely scrapes the surface!... The constant belittlement, the lack of fresh food and clean water, the amount of bruises and scratches, getting threatened to be publicly executed, all of it! That's why-- that's why I hate your tribe." Radiant felt as though daggers were coming up her throat with each word. She felt bad for hating Locust's tribe, but she wanted him to know how she felt. Radiant looked away, feeling guilty for hating Locust's tribe. After a few moments she felt claws resting on her back.

"I'm not like them, though. I don't hurt you, I don't make you suffer. At least, I think."

"No, you don't." Radiant said, wiping a tear from her eye and cracking a small smile.

"Good, that's-- that's nice to hear. If you want I can go get a bowl of honey drops to make you feel better. You're not at Wasp Hive anymore, you're safe and I'll make sure nothing EVER hurts you like them again." Locust said, reaching out his talons for a hug. Radiant rolled her eyes through the tears and returned the hug.

"Thank you." Radiant whispered to Locust.

"It's no biggie. You deserve to feel good about yourself."

"Mh... You know what would make me feel even better?"

"What?"

"A bowl of honey drops."

"I'm getting it, I'm getting it." Locust sighed playfully and got up to get the honey drops.

The dragons spent the rest of the night enjoying the honey drops and laughing away at the other's jokes and conversations to try and hide the pain of earlier. Locust went off to bed and Radiant followed soon after. The dragons spent the next few days uneventfully. Talking and eating took up much of the time and they were keeping up with the news. Reports of LeafWings around the Hives were brushed off by the both as unfunny pranks, though one day Radiant could almost see a bunch of weird figures flying across from the Poison Jungle into the ocean. One day, Radiant woke up and walked downstairs to see that Locust wasn't awake yet. Radiant noted that it would've been too early in the morning for him and just wanted to get the day over with. She walked down and walked over to her basket of vegetables and grabbed a piece of yam and gnawed on it sleepily. Suddenly, she heard a knock at the door. Radiant stretched her ruby red and white wings and walked over to the door.

"Delivery for Duke Locust." the delivery HiveWing said boredly.

"He's asleep."

"Not my problem, get him down and sign the paper."

"I'll just sign it and tell it's for him."

"Alright, do what you want. I don't care." Radiant pulled the board out of the HiveWing's talons and signed it with a quill.

"There, take it." Radiant tossed it back to the HiveWing and he nearly dropped it.

"Gee, here you go." The HiveWing said sarcastically after dropping a letter and package onto the porch. The HiveWing took off and Radiant was left by herself with a package and letter.

"Annoying little... Ugh! They don't even treat us with respect." Radiant whined to herself as she picked up the package. She quickly blew a raspberry at nothing, annoyed, and walked inside slamming the door shut. She tossed the package onto the table, but then saw a small letter fall. She went to pick it up to then see a small green locust symbol. She inspected it more to see it was from Tsetse Hive. Curiosity took over Radiant as she remembered Locust being panicked about the other letter and wanted to know what that was all about. She held the letter in one claw and tore it open from the top. Her stomach felt as though it was full of butterflies with each tear at it until finally the silk paper came out.

Addressed to Duke Locust

I expect this letter finds you well. You haven't been sending back your signed forms as of recently and I wish to know why you aren't. No, that's quite idiotic... I know why you're not sending your work back. That SilkWing you picked up is the reason, isn't it? Me and father know about that dragon. If you are upset learning about what you actually do, we regret to inform you that it would be a problem. If we do not earn income from you legalizing the trade papers then all of Wasp and Hornet Hive would go into poverty. If this problem stems from you trying to "protect" your little pet from the truth we will be forced to remove them ourselves. Disappointing your parents wouldn't be what you want, no? Their kind isn't of worth anyways, that's why they're better off as being low-class workers. Was none of your learning in Mantis Hive even useful? SilkWings are better off as being below HiveWings, you even said so yourself in our last letter before getting them. I hope this pause in your work is only momentarily and you resume once this letter gets in your thick skull.

Duchess Paralyze

"I'm sorry, what?" She looked at the letter over and over again. She wasn't incredibly surprised that Locust said he didn't like SilkWings, but them calling her a pet just enraged her. However, this made her more curious about what it was like in the family business. It said something about 'trade papers' so they could trade something, but what?

"Hey, Radiant." a voice called out.

"What is your family's business?" Radiant said coldly. For the first time in a while she was mad at Locust.

"W-- what exactly?"

"What is it? The letter your mommy sent you said something about trading."

"You opened a letter from her?"

"I-- ignore that. What is it?"

"It's just usually trading stuff, like fruits and meat."

"You're lying. It said Wasp Hive goes down if you stopped as well. Why would it go down into poverty? Bloodworm and Yellow Jacket would be the only ones suffering since they make the food. Wasp Hive is known for being the home of Wasp and--"

"It's nothing, okay?" Locust snapped. Radiant was taken back by him being upset.

"It IS something and I know it. You're trying to keep it a secret from me so that I wouldn't be hurt, aren't you?"

Locust didn't answer for a long time.

"I just want you to be happy..." he choked out.

"I'd sure be happy if you told me--"

"WE TRADE SILKWINGS!" Locust yelled out. "WE TRADE SILKWINGS AND SELL THEM INTO SLAVERY FOR PROFIT! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!" he screamed.

"You--"

"YES, WE DO. WE'RE THE REASON WHY SILKWINGS ARE LIKE THIS. WE'RE-- we're..." Locust stopped and looked at the floor.

"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME?" screamed Radiant. She got up and for once her pure hatred of HiveWings came back.

"I knew just a few days ago! I didn't want to tell you this!"

"How could you even LIVE like this?!" Radiant's face was burning up and her claws were digging into the floor.

"I TOLD YOU, I didn't KNOW!"

"I don't care if you didn't 'know', you're responsible for this. You're responsible for EVERYTHING that happened to me! I HATE you and your family!"

"Well, I hate you TOO! I never should've picked you!" and with that, Locust stormed off. Radiant threw down the letter and stormed out of the door in a fit of rage. She traveled through the Hive until she got to the edge.

"Stupid HiveWings!" she yelled as she flew off the edge of Hornet Hive. She was full of anger, sadness, betrayal, and confusion. She flew out into the savanna, determined to fly away. Maybe she could go to where Clearsight came from, far away from danger and the Hives. She flew until mid-day when the sun was at it's brightest. Radiant's stomach groaned more and more with each wingbeat until it was too much to bear. She ended up flying closer to the ground to rest and by the time she hit the ground she was right before a massive hole in the ground.

"That.. doesn't look good..." Radiant thought to herself. She gazed around the hole. It's entrance was nearly half the size of a normal Hive and Radiant walked along to see how deep it was. It looked endless at first glance, no, at every glace. Radiant couldn't see a bottom to it at all. Radiant got a weird feeling from looking at it and after a few minutes of resting she got back up and started to fly away. She was nearing Yellow Jacket Hive at this point and wanted to try and go to the shore. Perhaps she could actually fly off to the home of gods and goddesses and find other dragons like Clearsight. She was flying over to Yellow Jacket Hive when she saw something come out of the Poison Jungle. She saw a large group of SilkWings and, no, it couldn't be... LeafWings, of all shades of green came flying out on their two wings (Radiant was always weirdly disturbed by them).

"LeafWings!" she cried out. She dove down onto the ground and laid down flat. She could hear the sounds of wings flapping above her and held her breath, hoping that they'd just pass over her without a word. It seemed like ages before the sounds eventually left her ears alone and Radiant poked her head up once more. She slowly poked her head up and saw the group of dragons heading towards Wasp Hive. That was... Odd.. she thought to herself when picking herself up. She dusted some dirt off of her when she heard incredibly loud buzzing from Yellow Jacket and even Wasp Hive. The sounds of blaring wing flapping and was ear-piercing and Radiant covered her ears to block it out. She then saw massive groups of HiveWings leave Yellow Jacket Hive, most of which carried a SilkWing in their claws. Radiant could almost see a HiveWing without a SilkWing look at her, dead into her soul. It began to fly towards her at an increasingly fast pace. Radiant began to run away before lifting herself off the group. She looked back a few times to see the HiveWing gaining on her. It's jet black scales with streaks of red seemed to mirror Radiant’s own scales. She noticed the large sinkhole near her and dove into it, hoping to hide from the HiveWing. She looked around before finding a small tunnel in the wall near the surface. She ran into it and prayed to Clearsight the HiveWing wouldn't notice her. The smell of the tunnel reeked of fecal matter and barely any light was visible from how deep in Radiant was in the tunnel. She felt as though the walls around her were getting smaller and smaller with each second. Eventually the sounds of a HiveWing's wing beats filled her ears and remained for a few moments before exiting.

Radiant still didn't feel safe and stayed in that tunnel for Clearsight knows how long. Seconds, minutes, hours, who knows? She then walked out of the tunnel to see that night had fallen. By this point, Radiant regretted ever leaving Locust. She was scared, alone, and trapped in the darkness of night. Radiant made her way out of the hole as fast as possible and looked around to see that all the Hives were all mostly dark except for Wasp Hive. Radiant just wanted to go home. She flew a bit in the direction of Hornet Hive before laying down to rest. Her legs and wings were exhausted and were desperate for a break. She laid down in the dirty and pressed against the dry grass. The cold breeze brushed against Radiant's scales, sending a chill down her spine. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

Radiant awoke to find herself still in the field of grass. She looked to her side to see a small elephant and it's baby sleeping against Radiant. She stood up, waking both of the elephants up and walked away. 

"Shoo, get out of here." she said, looking back to the mother elephant helping the little elephant up to its feet. Radiant shook some dirt off herself and kept on her way to Hornet Hive. She could feel the hot sun coming up over the horizon, burning her scales in the process. The purple-ish wasteland of the savanna slowly faded away in the light and Radiant could see Vinegaroon Hive in the distance. Radiant didn't know how to react when she would get back to Hornet Hive, back to Locust. Was she still mad at him? A bit, but more so that his family just let this happen. All Radiant wanted was just to see Locust again, despite all that had happened, she still cared a bit for him.

A few hours later Radiant was nearing Hornet Hive. She spread her wings out and flew up towards Locust's balcony on the side of the Hive. She raised her talons to open up before hesitating. What if he kicks me out? When I left does that mean I'm no longer his SilkWing and I'm technically breaking into his-- no, he won't. Radiant assured herself. She opened the door and looked to her right to see Locust's door slightly ajar. She walked over to it and took a deep breath before talking.

"Hey, stupid HiveWing..." she began with a hollow laugh. "I'm back, yay!.. I just wanted to say that I'm-- I'm sorry for yelling at you. You were, and still are, not like those other HiveWings. You just want to see me genuinely happy, and I'm glad for that."

Radiant got no response.

"It's okay if you're still mad at me, in fact I'd expect you to still be mad at me. I've been acting like a LeafWing's droppings ever since I got here and-- oh yeah! I got to tell you this weird thing that happened while I was out of the Hive. Oh, and I also left the Hive when I was mad at you." Radiant dryly chuckled. She waited for a response, but nothing happened. "Are you still alive in there?" she joked as she knocked on the door. The door creaked open to reveal that Locust wasn't inside. 

"He must be downstairs then." she said to herself. Radiant rushed downstairs to see that Locust still wasn't there and the letter that began this whole mess was ripped to shreds. "Where are you?" she called out. She looked around the kitchen, the living room, everywhere. Locust wasn't there. 

"Maybe he's out getting something in the bazaar..." Radiant convinced herself. She ran out and walked into the bazaar. It was silent. None of the stalls were lit and no dragon was in the entire area (except for Radiant). She ran into the post office to see that no dragon was in there either. 

"Okay, if this is a joke it's not funny!" Radiant called out. Radiant ran back to the house and looked around. "Locust? Please tell me you're okay!" she called out. Radiant flew upstairs back to Locust's room and quickly ran inside. She looked around frantically before remembering what happened yesterday with Yellow Jacket Hive. "But she couldn't have taken all of them..." she whispered to herself. Radiant was about to walk out before something caught her eye. A small piece of silk paper on the ground with some writing on it. Radiant picked it up to see it was a note from Locust.

I don't know if you're reading this now, Radiant, but I'm sorry. I don't know if I'll even still be in the house when you come back if you ever come back. Wasp is rounding them all up. HiveWings, SilkWings, everybody. If I'm not here if you're reading this, don't look for me. Run as fast as you can from the Hives and hide, then you'll have some time before she finds you. I don't know where I'll go when she takes control of me, but just please don't look

Then the note stops right there. Radiant felt a pang in her heart as the realization struck her. "He's gone." She took a step back and dropped the note. She slowly grew more angry with each second that passed, all of it directed to Wasp. Radiant then shook her head, regaining her composure, and took the note.

"I'm sorry, Locust. I'm not letting you die." she said to the note. She ran downstairs and spotted her food basket. She grabbed the entire thing and took a piece of kale from her basket to gnaw on. She walked up the stairs to the balcony and took a deep breath. She saw Wasp Hive in the distance, giving her a boost of motivation.

"Home, here I come." she whispered to herself as she opened her wings to fly. She flapped them and raised herself into the air, overlooking the savanna and began to fly to Wasp Hive. While flying, she was plagued with thoughts of what was happening to Locust. She hated thinking of what he-- no, Wasp was doing with him. She contemplated a few times on if this was the right thing. He was just another dumb HiveWing, but he was a likeable dumb HiveWing in Radiant's eyes. She sometimes broke away from her thoughts to stare at the beautiful land. She saw herds of elephants scattered across the ground with zebras being chased by the occasional lioness. The treeless wasteland was both mesmerizing and haunting to her. With each wing beat her determination to save Locust grew stronger and stronger. She contemplated the idea of finding Wasp and pounding the honey out of her, but realized she'd probably have all of Pantala on her side. While flying, she was haunted by the question she had yet to understand.

"Why?"

There was no reason for why Wasp would round up all of the dragons and take them to Wasp Hive. If she got all of a sudden paranoid, that would make sense, but what would she paranoid about? The burning of Bloodworm Hive, perhaps... She began to feel tired and saw the sun far in the distance setting. She flew down beside a few zebras and set up camp.

"Ughh.. Why didn't I bring a blanket?" she questioned herself. Radiant pressed herself against the dry grass and groaned. A nearby zebra walked over to her and sniffed her antennae a bit, causing them to retreat backwards.

"Go on, get." she whispered, poking the Zebra with her horns gently. The zebra snorted, as if to say "Gee, thanks for being so nice to me." and walked off to join it's family. Radiant snorted, blowing some hay off of her snout, and closed her eyes drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, Radiant woke up to a rumbling stomach. She reached into her basket for food, only to find scraps.  
"Those stupid zebras!" Radiant cursed. She groaned and stoked her stomach, trying to make herself feel better. She spotted a Hive in the distance, however. If this Hive was as empty as the other Hives, perhaps Radiant could raid it and get some food. She struggled to her feet, and lifted herself into the air. The musty smell of savanna was getting old to Radiant and she just wanted to get this nightmare over with. She flew for a half an hour before reaching the Hive. The Hive had a faint orange hue to the treestuff that was built from it. She landed on the Hive to hear no sound, absolutely nothing at all.

"Abandoned like usual, good." Radiant smirked. She walked around the empty Hive, checking in small dorms and houses until coming to the center of the Hive. Instead of a bazaar being there, the Hive's palace was there. "That's quite bizarre. Heh, 'bazaar'." Radiant chuckled to herself. She checked the doors, noticing they were unlocked.

"How convenient of them to leave the doors unlocked." She grinned. She walked inside to see a massive hall of orange and yellow stripes. She saw the throne in front of her and a room off to the right side. Radiant could practically smell the foliage coming from that room. She walked over to it, feeling happy as can be and excited to eat some quality food. She saw the inside and found herself in a greenhouse connected to the room. On the front it said "TSETSE HIVE GREENHOUSE" and inside was rows upon rows of vegetables and grain. Streams of water flowed through the greenhouse and Radiant took a deep breath before going to pick some food. Suddenly, she heard a small yelp noise from the other side of the greenhouse. It scared her slightly, as she thought she was alone this entire time. Across a few hedges of vegetables, two white lines were moving hypnotically before curling up.

"Listen, SilkWing. Get up before I make you." Radiant snarled. The creature lifted it's head to reveal a sapphire blue and white SilkWing. It stood up slowly and cocked it's head to its side.

"I didn't know any other dragons were left behind--"

"Listen, just let me get the food and I'll get out of your scales. I don't need any more trouble." Radiant groaned. She yanked a chunk of yam out of the ground and the SilkWing screamed.

"Oh, no-no-no.. That's for the mister and mistress. I get the stuff over there. You could have some if you want." The blue SilkWing pointed to a disturbingly dank and dark pile of rotting food in the corner of the room.

"Yeah, no thanks. I'll stick with this."

"But you CAN'T! The mister and mistress will get mad if you do!"

"Oh my Clearsight," Radiant groaned. "They. Aren't. Here. I do not care if you are stuck with that disgusting pile over there. I'm taking the stuff and leaving." she yelled. Radiant yanked the rest of the yam out of the ground and began to walk over. Suddenly, she was toppled over by a force ramming into her side.

"You must not steal from the greenhouse." The SilkWing lectured, snatching the yams out of Radiant's talons and placing them back.

"Hey! I was going to eat those!"

"Stealing is wrong, you shouldn't steal from the mister and--"

"Who even are these dragons?!" Radiant roared, causing the SilkWing to flinch.

"You-- you don't know who they are?"

"Is it Tsetse or something?"

"Oh, no-no-no. Tsetse lives on that side," the SilkWing ushered her tail over to the left side.

"Okay... Then who are they?" Radiant asked. The SilkWing groaned and lifted up her front left arm. On the white scales was a nasty and ugly scar in the shape of a cricket, looking like it was burned into the dragon's scales a long time ago. Radiant held back her shock and awaited for the SilkWing to respond.

"Duchess Paralyze and Duke Cosmophasis." the SilkWing said cheerfully.

"Ugh!.. Did they like.. Brand their mark into your scales?" The SilkWing nodded. "How can you be so calm about this?"

"My name is Adonis. What's yours?" the SilkWing asked, ignoring the question. Radiant looked behind herself and looked back at Adonis in disarray.

"You know, I'll just leave." Radiant said. She walked out of the door, trying to escape from that SilkWing. She ran outside the palace and caught her breath to think. So, Locust's parent's are kooky, crazy, and treat their SilkWings like garbage. Thank Clearsight I got the normal one in the bunch. she thought to herself. She began to think more and more of what she could do before getting interrupted by the sound of a high pitched voice.

"You’re leaving already?" Adonis asked.

"Yes, I am. And I would like it if you didn't follow me."

"But, there's nobody here."

"Yes, there isn't. Don't tell me you just realized that." Radiant snapped. Adonis stayed silent, as if what Radiant said was correct.

"I want to come with you." Adonis said bluntly.

"Aww, thanks... No." Radiant said and began to walk away.

"HEY! HEY! Please! Can I just come with you? It's so lonely in the palace--"

"Then leave."

"I will, with you."

"I literally just met you a few minutes ago and now you're trusting me enough to follow me to Wasp Hive?"

"You're going to Wasp Hive?" Adonis asked. Radiant groaned and lifted herself in the air.

"Thanks for being a waste of time for me." Radiant yelled. She turned away from Tsetse Hive and began to fly towards Yellow Jacket Hive. All of a sudden, she heard a voice from behind her.

"Why are you going to Wasp Hive?" Adonis asked.

"DID I NOT JUST ASK YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

"Yes."

"THEN WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING?!"

"Because I want to come with you. You seem fun." Adonis perked. Her wings were flapping uncomfortably, as if she hasn't flown in months.

Radiant sighed. "Fine! You can come with me, but if things get rough, I'm leaving you behind."

"Wait, really?"

"Do you want me to knock you out of the sky right now?"

"No, not really."

"Alright, cool." Adonis and Radiant flew the rest of the way to Yellow Jacket Hive in silence. The sun was high in the sky at this point and Radiant was getting more annoyed at it.

"It was a dumb idea to go out here."

"What do you mean by that?" Adonis asked.

"I'm risking my life to save a stupid idiot."

"Why?"

Radiant paused. "I don't know, honestly. He's nice and pretty dumb."

"What's his name?"

"Locust." Radiant said. Adonis stayed silent for a while before speaking up again.

"Like, THE Locust? The son of the mister and mistress."

"I guess." Radiant shrugged.

"Then where's your brand?" Adonis questioned.

"Am I supposed to have a brand?"

"Yes, you are." Adonis groaned, pointing to her branding on her forearm.

Radiant just shrugged. "Don't know. Probably because he isn't a TERRIBLE person like his parents."

"Hey! Don't you say that about the mister and mistress--"

"Can you just not call them that? They aren't as important as you think."

Adonis snorted. "Really? Then who ELSE trades the SilkWings?"

"You say that trading dragons with lives and goals like cards is a good thing." Radiant critiqued. Adonis sighed and Radiant began to fly down to Yellow Jacket Hive. Her stomach was still roaring from hunger, though hopefully this time she actually finds food without having an annoying SilkWing join her.

"You know your way around this Hive?" Radiant asked.

"Nope. You?"

"I guess we're both in the same park," Radiant groaned. "Come with me, if we ever do find it you could carry extra."

"Extra what?" Adonis asked.

"Food, duh!"

"Clearsight alive, is that all you think about?"

"At least I don't think about my owner all the time." Radiant snarled back before realizing why she's out here again. Radiant must have had a shift in her facial expression when she remembered because Adonis began to cackle.

"Serves you right. How about we try to find at least ONE vendor."

"Don't tell me you actually think that we're going to buy food when literally everybody else is missing from their Hives." Radiant said tiredly.

"Well, it would be the right thing to do."

"Nobody is here, stupid."

"HEY! I'm not stupid!" Adonis yelled. Radiant moved her wings to show that the Hive was completely abandoned.

"Nobody's here to even take the money."

"Mh-hm, and?"

"Ugh! You're insufferable!" Radiant groaned.

"Thanks for the compliment." Adonis smirked. Both dragons began to walk into the Hive. While walking, Radiant had to keep her eyes on Adonis, just in case she tried to do something funny. Perhaps she was working with the HiveWings and was going to try and trick Radiant into being taken away like Locust.

"So, why are you coming along with me again?"

"Same reason you are. It's my duty to keep the mister and mistress safe."

"Really? That was your job? It wasn't like being their servant or something?" Radiant joked.

"Well, weren't you technically duke Locust's servant as well?"

"Oh shut up..." Radiant rolled her eyes at Adonis and continued walking through the abandoned Hive. It was eerie and quiet, something Radiant would normally enjoy, but now that she got her wish she felt unnerved. The silence of a once busy Hive only made Radiant feel more alone, even with Adonis by her side.

"Is something wrong?" Adonis asked, breaking the silence between them. "You look scared."

Radiant quickly changed her expression to something more serious. "Scared? Ha! I'm not scared." 

"Really? Cause you looked like you were about to pass out." Adonis smirked. 

"Can't you be useful and go look for a stall with food or something?" Radiant snapped. Her stomach was growling more and more with each passing second. 

"Can do." Adonis sighed and walked along the stalls to find food. Radiant wandered along the streets and sat down at a fountain in the center of the Hive. The fountain was made from stone and was in the shape of Wasp standing over the corpse of a LeafWing. She could see Adonis looking over for food far away and realized she could just run away this moment. She could just fly away and not have to have Adonis on her tail constantly.  
But she wouldn't. She didn't want to leave her all alone. Locust wouldn't be pleased about that for starters, but something about her told her that she couldn't just leave Adonis alone. Not when both are looking for their friends, even if Adonis's 'friends' are her owners. 

"Hey, bluey! Found any food?" Radiant yelled from across the bazaar.

"Don't call me 'bluey'!" Adonis yelled. "Also I found pieces of lion tail. They still look fresh!" She held up three unskinned tails above her head and waved them around. Radiant gagged and waved her talons.

"Have you seen literally anything ELSE but meat?"

"Nope, not yet!" Adonis yelled as she threw back the tails and walked over to Radiant. "Clearsight alive, you yell pretty loud. My voice hurts just talking to you from over there."

"You were like a hundred feet from me."

"Yeah, I know! It's insane isn't it?" Adonis exclaimed. Radiant let out a long sigh and stretched out her wings. "You have pretty wings." Adonis said, pointing to Radiant's red and white wings.

"Err, thanks? You have nice wings too, I guess." Radiant inspected her own wings and tried to wonder what Adonis saw in them that looked 'pretty'. Both dragons sat in silence for a while before Adonis spoke up again.

"What Hive are you from?" she asked  
.  
"Why do you want to know?"

"Being from different Hives can explain why your personality is like it is. You look like you're from Jewel Hive."

"I'm from Wasp Hive." Radiant spoke in a dull tone.

There was a brief moment of silence between both dragons before Adonis spoke again.

"Wow... How can you be so mean then?"

"Hey! I'm not 'mean'. I'm perfectly fine personality wise." Radiant smirked. Adonis stared at her slack-jawed and shook her head a bit before talking again.

"I just didn't expect you to be like that. Usually Wasp Hive SilkWings are--"

"Docile? Nice? Indoctrinated like you?"

"I'm sorry, 'indoctrinated'? Do I look like a mindless slave?"

"You practically worship Locust's parents."

"You're going on a suicide mission to save him."

"So are you."

Adonis kept quiet for a minute. "You do have a point..." she shrugged.

"Back to the point, why did you want to know where I was from?"

"Because I've only been from Tsetse Hive and I've never really met any SilkWings from any other Hive except Jewel Hive."

"Why Jewel?"

"The mister and mistress got another servant once."

"What happened to them?" Radiant leaned in to listen carefully, curious as to if anything happened to this unnamed SilkWing.

"They were like you, but they said something at the wrong time and place. They were sent somewhere to 'have a talk about their thoughts on Wasp' and I've never seen them since."

Radiant didn't know how to respond for the longest time. She decided to try and change the subject since she was still starving and needed food. "Well, that sucks. You hungry? I can go find the food you couldn't find."

"It's not like it wasn't TRYING to find food, just that you're picky."

"Not my fault that I hate the taste of meat."

"Well, why's that?" Adonis questioned.

"I-- err... I don't really want to say-- can you just sit here and wait for me to get some food?" Radiant snapped. Adonis sat still and Radiant turned to the stands. A cool breeze flew through Radiant's antennae as she walked over to a lavender purple coloured stand. Inside were red gems, small blankets, and tiny figures of Wasp. She rolled her eyes and moved onto a golden yellow bar not too far off. She jumped over the stools and walked in the kitchen to see charred meat over a barely flickering fire. Radiant kept on searching the bar to find a small crate with the words "GREENS' on it. She grabbed it and walked out of the bar and back to Adonis.

"You're back! I half expected you to just leave me."

Radiant thought about replying with 'Yeah, I don't know why I'm not gone yet', but decided just to keep quiet. "I found some food." the red dragon said. She stabbed a talon into the edge of the crate and wedged it open to reveal a load of cabbage and radishes.

"Ooh! You picked a nice one," Adonis picked up a radish and tapped it. "It's not all mushy and gross." Radiant grabbed a cabbage and peeled off a bit of it before chowing down. 

"Perhaps we should rest here for the night. Find some more food to bring with us and book it to Wasp Hive." Radiant said. Adonis looked at her radish and sighed. 

"But maybe we shouldn't..." 

"What do you mean by that? Of course we're going there!" 

"I mean, like you said it's a suicide mission. If we go there and she finds out we escaped the collection, she'll hang us!" Adonis cried. Radiant let out a deep sigh. 

"I didn't come this far to chicken out. Listen, we go in there and we find that family. I'm not dying until I find him and keep him safe." Radiant gave Adonis an empty smile and got up. "How about we make a fire?" 

"A fire? Here? Why?" 

"Because why not?" 

"You can burn the entire Hive down!" 

"So? Nobody gets hurt. I could break the fountain and fill it with treestuff--" 

"Break the fountain?! Are you mad?"

"Maybe, but it'll be fun. You need some fun in your sad life." 

"My life isn't sad!" Adonis yelled. Radiant raised her left eyebrow and walked away from the fountain. She went to some market and started to pull apart stands that had a bit of treestuff attached to it. After half an hour Radiant got quite a few talonfuls of it and went back to Adonis, who was still sitting at the fountain. 

"Can you help me disable the fountain?" Radiant asked, putting down the mountain of treestuff. Adonis shook her head and Radiant grumbled to herself. She then went to the mountain of treestuff and looked around for something to start the fire. She picked up two tiny sticks and began to rub them together on the floor of the bazaar. After a few minutes, a small spark appeared and the treestuff caught on fire. Radiant stepped back from the flames and sat on the fountain with Adonis, who was scooting father from the flames as the seconds went by. 

"Can you NOT though?" Adonis questioned.

"Not what? This is fun." Radiant pointed to the now growing flames and made a weak smile. 

"I don't find it fun. We're just burning property of others." Adonis said, grabbed another radish from the box. 

"Aw, you're no fun." Radiant waved her talons in the air, dismissing Adonis. Both stared into the fire for a minute or two before Adonis spoke up again. 

"I didn't get your name, by the way." 

"My name?" Radiant asked before remembering them both at Tsetse Hive, how Adonis introduced herself and Radiant just walked away. "Oh, yeah. It's Radiant."

"That's a nice name, though you're anything BUT radiant." 

"Hey!" Radiant yelled, though she was too tired to argue with Adonis again.  
Both dragons kept quiet for a long time afterwards; it was only until the small cinders of the fire burned up when Radiant spoke up again. It was nightfall and the crickets were beginning to hum and play in her ears. 

"I think I'm going to sleep—" Radiant cut herself off to see Adonis sleeping on the side of the fountain, wrapped up in her blue wings. Radiant got up and wandered through the bazaar. It was peaceful, quiet. The smell of the breeze filled her nostrils and the only noise besides the crickets were the sounds of Radiant's footsteps echoing through the Hive. 

For once, Radiant felt at peace. That was until the reminder of why she was here struck her once more. The breeze blew through the bazaar, chilling Radiant. She noticed a small stand nearby and walked over to it. In it was a collection of blankets and carpets. Unsurprisingly, she took them all and went back to the fountain. The sounds of running water soothed her ears more and more as she came closer to it. She laid the carpets and blankets down on the ground and was about to sleep before noticing Adonis, cold and alone. She could see her shivering, and almost muttering in her sleep. Radiant got up, picked the SilkWing up from off the fountain and placed her on the floor. Radiant then laid down a carpet and placed a few blankets on Adonis before crawling back into her own bundle of warmth. She rested her head on her talons and drifted off to sleep.


End file.
